Visual Studio Deep Dive: Unit Tests

2h 14mIntermediate2021-08-06

Authors

Walt Ritscher

Programmer, UI Designer, Staff Instructor at LinkedIn Learning

Course details

If you are a responsible programmer, you regularly test your code to make sure it behaves the way you expect it to behave. Unit tests are the most common type of developer test, and most programmers rely on a unit test framework to create and run those tests. In this course, Walt Ritscher takes a deep dive into the unit test tools available in Visual Studio. Walt gives an overview of unit tests and how they integrate with Visual Studio, then takes a deeper look into unit tests with MSTest and xUnit framework and how each is fully integrated into the Visual Studio Test Explorer, He also reviews additional Visual Studio test features like CodeLens, Live Unit Testing, and code coverage.

Skills covered

Visual StudioSoftware TestingWeb Development ToolsSoftware Development ToolsWeb DevelopmentMicrosoftSoftware DevelopmentOne-Off

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Test your code in Visual Studio
02 - What you should know
03 - Further lessons and examples
04 - Programming setup and configuration
05 - How to access the sample code on GitHub

1. Unit Tests Overview

06 - What topics are in this course
07 - What are unit tests
08 - Sample application to test
09 - Sample code to test
10 - The anatomy of a unit test framework
11 - Common test naming conventions
12 - Choose a test framework
13 - Temporarily disable CodeLens

2. Unit Tests Basics with xUnit Framework

14 - Add an xUnit project to solution
15 - xUnit conventions and philosophy
16 - Create test classes
17 - Add test with the Fact attribute
18 - Run the unit tests

3. Use Other xUnit Features

19 - Example unit tests
20 - Parameterized tests with Theory
21 - Parameter values with MemberData
22 - Parameter values with ClassData
23 - Use precision parameter when testing floats
24 - How to test for expected exceptions

4. Additional Visual Studio Test Features

25 - View unit test results with CodeLens
26 - Group the test with test categories
27 - Debug unit tests
28 - Tip - Clear the test list
29 - Run predefined sets of tests

5. Visual Studio Enterprise Features

30 - Analyze method test paths with code coverage
31 - Analyze all code with code coverage
32 - How exceptions affect code coverage statistics
33 - Enable Live Unit Testing
34 - Refactor code with Live Unit Testing

6. Unit Testing Tips

35 - Tip - Run tests after each build
36 - Tip - Group by duration or outcome
37 - Tip - Filter test list
38 - Tip - Save filters with playlists

7. Unit Tests with MSTest

39 - Add a unit test project to a solution
40 - MSTest examples
41 - Run the unit tests in Test Explorer
42 - Test for expected exceptions
43 - Parameterized and data-driven tests

Conclusion

44 - Next steps