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Asked: 2026-05-26T23:00:45+00:00

Firstly, forgive my use of the term unit when perhaps I mean integration test.

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Firstly, forgive my use of the term “unit” when perhaps I mean integration test. However, in this case I am treating testing of a DAO method as a unit and am not attempting to mock the underlining database.

I’ve been trying to test a particular DAO method that searches for particular entities – 

public Factor GetMatchingFactor(int aircraftStoresConfigurationId, int stationId, DateTime timeStamp)
{
    // code etc....
}

No, normally, I try to have several unit tests, maybe a few for each parameter to ensure each is treated appropriately. I’m happy with this normally when the method itself processes the parameter, and at worse calls a dependent that I can test using mocks / stubs. However, in this particular method, the result of the method is not a pure function or one parameter, but rather a function of the parameters AND the test data.

Therefore, I struggle to define tests like

public void TestThatAircraftStoresConfigurationIdParameterIsApplied
public void TestThatStationIdParameterIsApplied
public void TestThatTimeStampParameterIsApplied

as their names are incorrectly, each does not just test one thing.

This also means that I’m struggling to follow the rule of only one Assert per test.

Therefore, I’ve tested this method using the following code with the same coverage, and possibly more meaningful. 

    [Test]
    public void TestReturnsCorrectResult()
    {
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10001, Station.Station9Id,  new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 10, 00, 00)).Id, Is.EqualTo(1), "Test 1");
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10001, Station.Station9Id,  new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 11, 00, 00)).Id, Is.EqualTo(1), "Test 2");
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10001, Station.Station9Id,  new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 19, 00, 00)).Id, Is.EqualTo(1), "Test 3");
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10001, Station.Station9Id,  new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 19, 00, 01)).Id, Is.EqualTo(2), "Test 4");
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10001, Station.Station9Id,  new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 19, 00, 02)).Id, Is.EqualTo(2), "Test 5");
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10001, Station.Station9Id,  new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 14, 00, 00)).Id, Is.EqualTo(1), "Test 6");
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10001, Station.Station10Id, new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 14, 00, 00)).Id, Is.EqualTo(1), "Test 7");
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10002, Station.Station11Id, new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 14, 00, 00)).Id, Is.EqualTo(3), "Test 8");
        Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(10002, Station.Station12Id, new DateTime(2011, 11, 16, 14, 00, 00)).Id, Is.EqualTo(3), "Test 9");
    }

I’m not comfortable with the multiple asserts, but it seems the only logical way to structure these tests. Can anyone suggest a better option?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This seems like a perfect fit for TestCases in NUnit 2.5. You could rewrite your code as follows:

    [TestCase(10001, Station.Station9Id,   2011, 11, 16, 10, 00, 00,  1)]
[TestCase(10001, Station.Station9Id,   2011, 11, 16, 11, 00, 00,  1)]
[TestCase(10001, Station.Station9Id,   2011, 11, 16, 19, 00, 00,  1)]
[TestCase(10001, Station.Station9Id,   2011, 11, 16, 19, 00, 01,  2)]
[TestCase(10001, Station.Station9Id,   2011, 11, 16, 19, 00, 02,  2)]
[TestCase(10001, Station.Station9Id,   2011, 11, 16, 14, 00, 00,  1)]
[TestCase(10001, Station.Station10Id,  2011, 11, 16, 14, 00, 00,  1)]
[TestCase(10002, Station.Station11Id,  2011, 11, 16, 14, 00, 00,  3)]
[TestCase(10002, Station.Station12Id,  2011, 11, 16, 14, 00, 00,  3)]
public void TestReturnsCorrectResult(int configId, int stationId, int yy, int mm, int dd, int h, int m, int s, int expectedResult)
{
    Assert.That(_sut.GetMatchingFactor(configId, stationId, new DateTime(yy,mm,dd,h,m,s)).Id, Is.EqualTo(expectedResult));
}

    Now there’s only one assertion, but there are multiple things being tested. It’s really nice for integration tests like the one you’re describing.

    Note that you can only pass constants through the TestCase attribute, so you won’t be able to new up a DateTime object. Instead, you have have to pass the year, month, day, etc. as parameters to the method and then instantiate the DateTime yourself.

    You might also consider using some T4 script to generate your TestCase attributes from some other data – such as a CSV file. I’ve used this approach in the past with quite a bit of succcess and it allows end users to create test cases in Excel and then pass them to you.

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