> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://cover-docs.diffblue.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://cover-docs.diffblue.com/features/cover-annotations/interesting-value-annotations.md).

# Interesting Value Annotations

## Using `@InterestingTestFactory`

Indicates the annotated method as a useful factory method for use in tests. Cover will automatically recognise factory methods that simply return a newly created instance, but may not identify more complicated factories. This annotation allows such factory methods to be manually annotated so that Cover considers them for producing inputs. For example the following method under test takes a `User` as input, but the `User` constructor is private and Cover doesn't naturally consider `ofStaff(String)` to be a safe factory method to call. By annotating the `ofStaff(String)` with `@InterstingTestFactory` we can tell Cover that this should be considered a good factory method to use in tests.

```java
public String getUserDisplayString(User user) {
    if (user.manager) {
        return user.username + " (manager)";
    }
    else {
        return user.username;
    }
}

class User {
    private static Map<String, User> staff = new HashMap<String, User>();

    @InterestingTestFactory
    public static User ofStaff(String name) {
        return staff.computeIfAbsent(name, ignored -> new User(name, false));
    }

    public final String username;
    public final boolean manager;

    private User(String username, boolean manager) {
        this.username = username;
        this.manager = manager;
    }
}
```