Testing Blog

Testing on the Toilet: Writing Descriptive Test Names

Thursday, October 16, 2014
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook
Google
Labels: Andrew Trenk , TotT

4 comments :

  1. VISHALNovember 17, 2014 at 10:53:00 PM PST

    Good one, certainly it helps to trace out the left over requirements, moreover if Priority of test cases is also added e.g., "descriptive_name_Priority01", it gives the added advantage in identifying the test cases to be run on basis of priority whenever required.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  2. MikeDecember 11, 2014 at 8:53:00 AM PST

    Very well-written article. I personally use a unit test naming pattern along the lines of:

    public void [FUT]_When[SomeContextOrScenario]_Returns[(or Updates..., or Affects..., etc.)SomeValueOrResult]()
    {
    /* ... */
    }

    Please note:
    - This example is in C#, with bracketed "parameters" and alternatives in parentheses.

    - In this example, FUT is the "function under test" (the overall test fixture, or "[TestClass]" will correspond/relate to the SUT, or "system under test"). I've found this part of the convention to be extremely useful, as it allows me to select a sub-section of tests, as applicable to a particular function, by simply using [Shift + left-click]. This is possible because many "Test Explorer" implementations alphabetize unit tests.

    - People are often upset initially by the underscores, and sometimes resist their inclusion, but those characters help me identify the segregated responsibilities of the test name (what requirements the name must satisfy, as discussed in this article). Once, an open-minded lead developer asked me to remove the underscores (on a "for now..." basis), and then come back and actually SUGGESTED underscores, but under strict guidelines, for readability. :-) (That's how I feel more lead developers should approach conflicting ideas from their teammates. He even credited me when formalizing his suggestion. Thanks, Jeff!)

    Thanks for this well-presented information and I look forward to future installments of TotT. I apologize if anything in this post is "superfluous" or "noise". I get excited about large companies embracing topics dear to me.

    Sincerely,
    Mike Manard

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  3. MikeDecember 11, 2014 at 8:56:00 AM PST

    Name of test only, since formatting seems a bit off above...

    [FUT]_When[SomeContextOrScenario]_Returns[(or Updates..., or Affects..., etc.)SomeValueOrResult]()

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  4. AnonymousJune 9, 2015 at 10:44:00 AM PDT

    Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
Add comment
Load more...

The comments you read and contribute here belong only to the person who posted them. We reserve the right to remove off-topic comments.

  

Labels


  • TotT 104
  • GTAC 61
  • James Whittaker 42
  • Misko Hevery 32
  • Code Health 31
  • Anthony Vallone 27
  • Patrick Copeland 23
  • Jobs 18
  • Andrew Trenk 13
  • C++ 11
  • Patrik Höglund 8
  • JavaScript 7
  • Allen Hutchison 6
  • George Pirocanac 6
  • Zhanyong Wan 6
  • Harry Robinson 5
  • Java 5
  • Julian Harty 5
  • Adam Bender 4
  • Alberto Savoia 4
  • Ben Yu 4
  • Erik Kuefler 4
  • Philip Zembrod 4
  • Shyam Seshadri 4
  • Chrome 3
  • Dillon Bly 3
  • John Thomas 3
  • Lesley Katzen 3
  • Marc Kaplan 3
  • Markus Clermont 3
  • Max Kanat-Alexander 3
  • Sonal Shah 3
  • APIs 2
  • Abhishek Arya 2
  • Alan Myrvold 2
  • Alek Icev 2
  • Android 2
  • April Fools 2
  • Chaitali Narla 2
  • Chris Lewis 2
  • Chrome OS 2
  • Diego Salas 2
  • Dori Reuveni 2
  • Jason Arbon 2
  • Jochen Wuttke 2
  • Kostya Serebryany 2
  • Marc Eaddy 2
  • Marko Ivanković 2
  • Mobile 2
  • Oliver Chang 2
  • Simon Stewart 2
  • Stefan Kennedy 2
  • Test Flakiness 2
  • Titus Winters 2
  • Tony Voellm 2
  • WebRTC 2
  • Yiming Sun 2
  • Yvette Nameth 2
  • Zuri Kemp 2
  • Aaron Jacobs 1
  • Adam Porter 1
  • Adam Raider 1
  • Adel Saoud 1
  • Alan Faulkner 1
  • Alex Eagle 1
  • Amy Fu 1
  • Anantha Keesara 1
  • Antoine Picard 1
  • App Engine 1
  • Ari Shamash 1
  • Arif Sukoco 1
  • Benjamin Pick 1
  • Bob Nystrom 1
  • Bruce Leban 1
  • Carlos Arguelles 1
  • Carlos Israel Ortiz García 1
  • Cathal Weakliam 1
  • Christopher Semturs 1
  • Clay Murphy 1
  • Dagang Wei 1
  • Dan Maksimovich 1
  • Dan Shi 1
  • Dan Willemsen 1
  • Dave Chen 1
  • Dave Gladfelter 1
  • David Bendory 1
  • David Mandelberg 1
  • Derek Snyder 1
  • Diego Cavalcanti 1
  • Dmitry Vyukov 1
  • Eduardo Bravo Ortiz 1
  • Ekaterina Kamenskaya 1
  • Elliott Karpilovsky 1
  • Elliotte Rusty Harold 1
  • Espresso 1
  • Felipe Sodré 1
  • Francois Aube 1
  • Gene Volovich 1
  • Google+ 1
  • Goran Petrovic 1
  • Goranka Bjedov 1
  • Hank Duan 1
  • Havard Rast Blok 1
  • Hongfei Ding 1
  • Jason Elbaum 1
  • Jason Huggins 1
  • Jay Han 1
  • Jeff Hoy 1
  • Jeff Listfield 1
  • Jessica Tomechak 1
  • Jim Reardon 1
  • Joe Allan Muharsky 1
  • Joel Hynoski 1
  • John Micco 1
  • John Penix 1
  • Jonathan Rockway 1
  • Jonathan Velasquez 1
  • Josh Armour 1
  • Julie Ralph 1
  • Kai Kent 1
  • Kanu Tewary 1
  • Karin Lundberg 1
  • Kaue Silveira 1
  • Kevin Bourrillion 1
  • Kevin Graney 1
  • Kirkland 1
  • Kurt Alfred Kluever 1
  • Manjusha Parvathaneni 1
  • Marek Kiszkis 1
  • Marius Latinis 1
  • Mark Ivey 1
  • Mark Manley 1
  • Mark Striebeck 1
  • Matt Lowrie 1
  • Meredith Whittaker 1
  • Michael Bachman 1
  • Michael Klepikov 1
  • Mike Aizatsky 1
  • Mike Wacker 1
  • Mona El Mahdy 1
  • Noel Yap 1
  • Palak Bansal 1
  • Patricia Legaspi 1
  • Per Jacobsson 1
  • Peter Arrenbrecht 1
  • Peter Spragins 1
  • Phil Norman 1
  • Phil Rollet 1
  • Pooja Gupta 1
  • Project Showcase 1
  • Radoslav Vasilev 1
  • Rajat Dewan 1
  • Rajat Jain 1
  • Rich Martin 1
  • Richard Bustamante 1
  • Roshan Sembacuttiaratchy 1
  • Ruslan Khamitov 1
  • Sam Lee 1
  • Sean Jordan 1
  • Sebastian Dörner 1
  • Sharon Zhou 1
  • Shiva Garg 1
  • Siddartha Janga 1
  • Simran Basi 1
  • Stan Chan 1
  • Stephen Ng 1
  • Tejas Shah 1
  • Test Analytics 1
  • Test Engineer 1
  • Tim Lyakhovetskiy 1
  • Tom O'Neill 1
  • Vojta Jína 1
  • automation 1
  • dead code 1
  • iOS 1
  • mutation testing 1


Archive


  • ►  2025 (1)
    • ►  Jan (1)
  • ►  2024 (13)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Sep (1)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  Apr (3)
    • ►  Mar (1)
    • ►  Feb (1)
  • ►  2023 (14)
    • ►  Dec (2)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (5)
    • ►  Sep (3)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Apr (1)
  • ►  2022 (2)
    • ►  Feb (2)
  • ►  2021 (3)
    • ►  Jun (1)
    • ►  Apr (1)
    • ►  Mar (1)
  • ►  2020 (8)
    • ►  Dec (2)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Aug (2)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  May (1)
  • ►  2019 (4)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  Jan (1)
  • ►  2018 (7)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Sep (1)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  Feb (1)
  • ►  2017 (17)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Sep (1)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Jul (2)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Feb (1)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2016 (15)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Sep (2)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  Apr (1)
    • ►  Mar (1)
    • ►  Feb (1)
  • ►  2015 (14)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (2)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Jun (1)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Mar (1)
    • ►  Feb (1)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ▼  2014 (24)
    • ►  Dec (2)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ▼  Oct (2)
      • GTAC 2014 is this Week!
      • Testing on the Toilet: Writing Descriptive Test Names
    • ►  Sep (2)
    • ►  Aug (2)
    • ►  Jul (3)
    • ►  Jun (3)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Mar (2)
    • ►  Feb (1)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2013 (16)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Aug (2)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Mar (2)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2012 (11)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (3)
    • ►  Sep (1)
    • ►  Aug (4)
  • ►  2011 (39)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (5)
    • ►  Sep (2)
    • ►  Aug (4)
    • ►  Jul (2)
    • ►  Jun (5)
    • ►  May (4)
    • ►  Apr (3)
    • ►  Mar (4)
    • ►  Feb (5)
    • ►  Jan (3)
  • ►  2010 (37)
    • ►  Dec (3)
    • ►  Nov (3)
    • ►  Oct (4)
    • ►  Sep (8)
    • ►  Aug (3)
    • ►  Jul (3)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (3)
    • ►  Mar (3)
    • ►  Feb (2)
    • ►  Jan (1)
  • ►  2009 (54)
    • ►  Dec (3)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (3)
    • ►  Sep (5)
    • ►  Aug (4)
    • ►  Jul (15)
    • ►  Jun (8)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Feb (5)
    • ►  Jan (4)
  • ►  2008 (75)
    • ►  Dec (6)
    • ►  Nov (8)
    • ►  Oct (9)
    • ►  Sep (8)
    • ►  Aug (9)
    • ►  Jul (9)
    • ►  Jun (6)
    • ►  May (6)
    • ►  Apr (4)
    • ►  Mar (4)
    • ►  Feb (4)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2007 (41)
    • ►  Oct (6)
    • ►  Sep (5)
    • ►  Aug (3)
    • ►  Jul (2)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (7)
    • ►  Mar (5)
    • ►  Feb (5)
    • ►  Jan (4)

Feed

  • Google
  • Privacy
  • Terms