unit-testing Getting started with unit-testing A basic unit test

Example

At its simplest, a unit test consists of three stages:

• Prepare the environment for the test
• Execute the code to be tested
• Validate the expected behaviour matches the observed behaviour

These three stages are often called 'Arrange-Act-Assert', or 'Given-When-Then'.

Below is example in C# that uses the NUnit framework.

[TestFixture]
public CalculatorTest
{
   [Test]
   public void Add_PassSevenAndThree_ExpectTen()
   {
       // Arrange - setup environment
       var systemUnderTest = new Calculator();         

       // Act - Call system under test
       var calculatedSum = systemUnderTest.Add(7, 3);  
       
       // Assert - Validate expected result
       Assert.AreEqual(10, calculatedSum);             
  }
}

Where necessary, an optional fourth clean up stage tidies up.