Question

I have a Repositry class wich initiates like this:

public ContactRepository(string sqlStr, string username)
{
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(sqlStr))
    {
        ent = new AceoEntities(sqlStr);
        Username = username; 
    }
    else
        new Exception("No sql string is defined");
}

This might not be the best method, but I would like to make sure it’s not possible to create an instance off the class without sqlStr.

Then I’m trying to test this:

[TestMethod()]
public void CreateContactRepositoryWithEmtySqlString()
{
    string sqlStr = string.Empty;
    ContactRepository target;

    try
    {
        target = new ContactRepository("kvelland-kk", sqlStr);
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        Assert.AreEqual("No sql string is defined",e.Message);
    }
}

My question is: Is this the correct way to to this? I’ having problems getting this to work.

Answer 1

I prefer GarethOwen’s answer (the ExpectedException attribute) or this way:

public void MyTest()
{
    try
    {    
        target = new ContactRepository("kvelland-kk", sqlStr); 

        Assert.Fail("Should have failed with MyExceptionType");
    }
    catch(MyExceptionType){}
}

Checking exception messages is not a good idea. Cause you may get a different message based on the system localisation. Check for the exception type instead. And as Xhalent mentioned don’t throw the a Exception, throw a specific type of exception.