Visual Studio Team Test: How to unit test “?” operator with only Asserts() and not using any tool

Question

I need to write some unit test cases to test my code in C# Visual Studio Team Test framework. Below is the method I want to test:

public static Association CreateAssociationFromXrm(Xrm.pv_association xrmAssociation)

{

return new Association
        {
            AssociationId = xrmAssociation.pv_associationId.GetValueOrDefault(),
            Name = xrmAssociation.pv_Name,
            BusinessId = xrmAssociation.pv_BusinessID,
            ParcelId = xrmAssociation.pv_ParcelID,
            AssociationHoldingId = (xrmAssociation.pv_AssociationHolding != null) ? xrmAssociation.pv_AssociationHolding.Id : Guid.Empty,
            AssociationCategoryId = (xrmAssociation.pv_Category != null) ? xrmAssociation.pv_Category.Id : Guid.Empty,
            EmailAddress = xrmAssociation.pv_PrimaryEmail,
            Description = xrmAssociation.pv_Description,
            IsDevelopementComplete = xrmAssociation.pv_IsDevelopmentComplete,
            Fax = xrmAssociation.pv_Fax,
            AlternateEmail = xrmAssociation.pv_AlternateEmail,
            WorkPhone1 = xrmAssociation.pv_WorkPhone1,
            WorkPhone2 = xrmAssociation.pv_WorkPhone2,
            Website = xrmAssociation.pv_Website,
            DevelopmentCount = xrmAssociation.pv_DevelopmentOwnedCount,
            HomeDescription = xrmAssociation.pv_HomeDescription,
            DateTurnedOver = xrmAssociation.pv_DateTurnedOver,
            OwnersOccupiedCount = xrmAssociation.pv_OwnersOccupiedCount.HasValue ? xrmAssociation.pv_OwnersOccupiedCount.Value : 0,
            RentalsOccupiedCount = xrmAssociation.pv_RentalsOccupiedCount.HasValue ? xrmAssociation.pv_RentalsOccupiedCount.Value : 0,
            RentalCapCount = xrmAssociation.pv_RentalCapCount.HasValue ? xrmAssociation.pv_RentalCapCount.Value : 0,
            HomeMaxCount = xrmAssociation.pv_HomeMaxCount.HasValue ? xrmAssociation.pv_HomeMaxCount.Value : 0,
            Address1 = xrmAssociation.pv_Address1,
            Address2 = xrmAssociation.pv_Address2,
            State = xrmAssociation.pv_State,
            City = xrmAssociation.pv_City,
            Zip = xrmAssociation.pv_ZIP,
            County = xrmAssociation.pv_County,
            CommunityText = xrmAssociation.pv_CommunityText,
            FederalCompanyClassificationId = xrmAssociation.pv_FederalCompanyClassificationID != null ? xrmAssociation.pv_FederalCompanyClassificationID.Id : Guid.Empty,
            Domain = xrmAssociation.pv_Domain,
            CreatedByUserProfileId = xrmAssociation.pv_CreatedByUserProfileID != null ? xrmAssociation.pv_CreatedByUserProfileID.Id : Guid.Empty,
            ModifiedByUserProfileId = xrmAssociation.pv_ModifiedByUserProfileID != null ? xrmAssociation.pv_ModifiedByUserProfileID.Id : Guid.Empty
        };
}

In the above method, I need to write unit test cases to test especially the "if-else" logic statement. Example - "CreatedByUserProfileId = xrmAssociation.pv_CreatedByUserProfileID != null ? xrmAssociation.pv_CreatedByUserProfileID.Id: Guid.Empty" So I wrote the following unit test method:

namespace PVWebApi.Test
    {
    [TestClass]
    public class ApiModelFactoryTest
    {
        [TestMethod]
        [ExpectedException(typeof(NullReferenceException), "A userId of null was inappropriately allowed.")]
        public void CreateAssociationFromXrmShouldCheckConditionalBranch()
        {
            Xrm.pv_association Input = new Xrm.pv_association();
            Input = null;
            PVWebApiRole.ApiModelFactory.CreateAssociationFromXrm(Input);
            var expected = default(PVWebApi.Models.Association);
            Assert.IsTrue(expected == PVWebApiRole.ApiModelFactory.CreateAssociationFromXrm(Input), "Failed");
        }
   }

}

This test passed, but it is actually not testing what I intend to test i.e. It should assign "Guid.Empty" when "null" is being passed. It just throws the exceptions of NullReference and thus the test passes.

Some may consider it very rude to be asked to respond immediately on a volunteer-driven platform. If you're in a hurry, it's possible that you should reconsider the sequence of events that got you there. — Lars Viklund, Nov 11 '14 at 11:59
possible duplicate of [Visual Studio Team Test: How to unit test "?" operator with only Asserts() and not using any tool](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26863782/visual-studio-team-test-how-to-unit-test-operator-with-only-asserts-and-n) — gnat, Nov 11 '14 at 13:12

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 11 '14 at 12:50

Your test does definitely not test what you want to test:

[TestMethod]
[ExpectedException(typeof(NullReferenceException))] // #1
public void CreateAssociationFromXrmShouldCheckConditionalBranch()
{
    Xrm.pv_association Input = new Xrm.pv_association();
    Input = null; // #2
    PVWebApiRole.ApiModelFactory.CreateAssociationFromXrm(Input);
    var expected = default(PVWebApi.Models.Association);
    Assert.IsTrue(expected == PVWebApiRole.ApiModelFactory
                                  .CreateAssociationFromXrm(Input), "Failed");
}

@1) Why do you tell the test runner you expect a NRE if thats not what you want?

@2) How should it "create anything" if you set the value to null?

Maybe you want something like:

[TestMethod]
public void CreateAssociationFromXrmShouldCheckConditionalBranch()
{
    Xrm.pv_association Input = new Xrm.pv_association();
    var output = PVWebApiRole.ApiModelFactory.CreateAssociationFromXrm(Input);
    Assert.AreEqual(Guid.Empty, output.CreatedByUserProfileId);
}

Thank you so much, this is what I was trying to check but was not able to write in the correct way. — Abhishek Agrawal, Nov 11 '14 at 13:19

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 11 '14 at 12:49

You are passing the entire Xrm.pv_association object as null, not just the userId. The method you are testing will throw an exception on the very first line:

AssociationId = xrmAssociation.pv_associationId.GetValueOrDefault(),  //xrmAssociation is null!

Perhaps you meant to do this in your test method instead:

Input.pv_CreatedByUserProfileID = null;

Visual Studio Team Test: How to unit test “?” operator with only Asserts() and not using any tool

2 Answers2