Question

I am executing the following test written using SpecFlow framework and when the test reaches “Then” the _accountController is null. Why?

 [Binding]
    public class RegisterUserSteps
    {
        private AccountController _accountController;
        private ActionResult _result; 

        [When(@"the user goes to the register user screen")]
        public void WhenTheUserGoesToTheRegisterUserScreen()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("When");

            _accountController = new AccountController();
           _result = _accountController.Register();

        }

        [Then(@"the register user view should be displayed")]
        public void ThenTheRegisterUserViewShouldBeDisplayed()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Then");

            Assert.AreEqual("Register", _accountController.ViewData["Title"]);
        }
    }

UPDATE 1:

[Binding]
    public class RegisterUserSteps
    {
        private AccountController _accountController = new AccountController();
        private ActionResult _result; 



        [When(@"the user goes to the register user screen")]
        public void WhenTheUserGoesToTheRegisterUserScreen()
        {
           _result = _accountController.Register();
        }

        [Then(@"the register user view should be displayed")]
        public void ThenTheRegisterUserViewShouldBeDisplayed()
        {
            Assert.AreEqual("Register", _accountController.ViewData["Title"]);
        }
    }

Answer 1

Does making the _accountController static resolve the issue? Or newing it up right from the beginning like this?

private AccountController _accountController = new AccountController();