Custom Assertions

Writing your own assertions is a way to reduce duplication in tests. The error message also needs to be informative. Approval testing is a different way to achieve that but we don’t go into that here.

Session outline

• 5 min connect: Failure messages
• 10 min concept: Custom Assertion
• 30 min do: Roadload or similar
• 10 min reflect: when should you write a custom assertion?

Failure messages

Look at these failure messages. What do you expect to see in a good failure message?

Custom Assertion

If you’ve used a custom assertion in a previous exercise, review that code now. Otherwise, show an example of a custom assertion for an exercise they are already familiar with.

Extract a custom assertion

Roadload has a starting position with one test case with several assertions. Extract it to a custom assert in a test fixture. Write some more tests using the same custom assert.

Conclusions

When should you write a custom assertion? What kinds of code smells would indicate it is a good idea?

Compare your answers with the list in XUnit patterns