Using conditional compilation for unit testing

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I want to know is it good idea to put Nunit code in same class that has to be
tested using unit tests. That is business logic & test code in same class.
Partial class feature can be used to put the test code in to another file.
May be some nested class to put actual testing code. And this code can be compiled conditionally. I want to do this because I believe this approach will make it possible to easily test private methods with Nunit. First I want to know is it possible? If yes what can be the problelms with this approach specially for large projects having continueous integration and stuff like that.
If its stupid question please tell me.

Posted 24-Mar-11 3:22am

Prafulla Hunde

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R. Erasmus 25-Mar-11 3:44am

best to create unit test from an external class and setting up initial data, executing the class under tests respective methods and comparing the initial data with expected.

R. Erasmus 25-Mar-11 3:45am

Having it in the same class will cost you to provide another test to show that the tested data does not affect the class itself.

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Micha3ldg · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-24T03:46:00

Solution 1

Yes that will be possible. the only drawback I see the the readability and maintainability of the source code. that means your code will be messy if you combine the test codes and the actual code.
I hope this will help.

Posted 24-Mar-11 3:46am

Micha3ldg

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Prafulla Hunde 25-Mar-11 17:00pm

Readability may not be so bad if the partial class definition is in separate file.Something like what visual studio does by making Form.Designer.cs to put all auto generated code. Also a separate inner test class can be used to put all testing code.
And all the code in the separate partial class file is compiled conditionally so it does not exist in release dlls.

BobJanova · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-24T06:37:00

Normally you would not apply unit testing to private methods. Unit testing is there to make sure that each component operates correctly according to its spec, i.e. the public interface works as it's supposed to. Testing private methods should generally be done on a less formal level, when you're developing them, with unit tests applied to the public output that the private methods help in constructing. That's one reason why most testing frameworks (including NUnit) don't have tricks to test non-public methods.

Unit testing your private methods means that you can't change how the class works internally without rewriting the tests, even if you haven't changed anything that is visible to the outside.

The answer to your question is that it should work, but it will be messy extracting the tests and the deployment and potentially confusing to people who visit the project after you.