We are big fans of xUnit. But we don't care much for the programmers.
TL;DR: Use asserts with declarative descriptions.
Problems
Readability
Hard debugging
Time waste
Solutions
Put a nice descriptive assertion
Share guides for problem-solving
Sample Code
Wrong
<?
public function testNoNewStarsAppeared(): void
{
$expectedStars = $this->historicStarsOnFrame();
$observedStars = $this->starsFromObservation();
//These sentences get a very large collection
$this->assertEquals($expectedStars, $observedStars);
//If something fails we will have a very hard debugging time
}
Right
<?
public function testNoNewStarsAppeared(): void
{
$expectedStars = $this->historicStarsOnFrame();
$observedStars = $this->starsFromObservation();
//These sentences get a very large collection
$newStars = array_diff($expectedStars, $observedStars);
$this->assertEquals($expectedStars, $observedStars ,
'There are new stars ' . print_r($newStars,true));
//Now we can see EXACTLY why the assertion failed with a clear and
//Declarative Message
}
Detection
Since assert and assertDescription are different functions, we can adjust our policies to favour the latter.
Tags
- Test Smells
Conclusion
Be respectful to the reader of your assertions.
It might even be yourself!
More Info
Credits
Photo by Startaê Team on Unsplash
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
John Woods
This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.
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