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How to Test Private and Protected methods in .NET

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1 Mar 20057 min read 478.8K   2.2K   136  
This article explains some theory behind testing/not testing private methods, and then provides and walks through a downloadable code sample to demonstrate these testing techniques.
using System;
using NUnit.Framework;
using ClassLibrary1;

namespace UnitTests
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Summary description for MyTests.
	/// </summary>
	[TestFixture] public class MyTests
	{
		public MyTests()
		{

		}

		[Test] public void TestPublicMethod() 
		{
			string strExpected = "MyName: Value";
			ClassLibrary1.MyObject c = new ClassLibrary1.MyObject("MyName");
			string strActual = c.MyPublicMethod("Value");
			Assert.AreEqual(strExpected,strActual);
		}

		[Test] public void TestProtectedMethod() 
		{
			string strExpected = "MyName: Value, 23";
			MyObjectTester c = new MyObjectTester("MyName");
			string strActual = c.TestMyProtectedMethod("Value",23);
			Assert.AreEqual(strExpected,strActual);
		}

		[Test] public void TestPrivateStaticMethod() 
		{
			string strExpected = "Hello, 2.1";

			object obj = UnitTestUtilities.Helper.RunStaticMethod(
				typeof(ClassLibrary1.MyObject),
				"MyPrivateStaticMethod",
				new object[2] {"Hello",2.1});
			string strActual = Convert.ToString(obj);

			Assert.AreEqual(strExpected,strActual);

		}

		[Test] public void TestPrivateInstanceMethod() 
		{
			string strExpected = "MyName: Hello, 5/24/2004 12:00:00 AM, 2.1";

			ClassLibrary1.MyObject objInstance = new MyObject("MyName");
			object obj = UnitTestUtilities.Helper.RunInstanceMethod(
				typeof(ClassLibrary1.MyObject),
				"MyPrivateMethod",
				objInstance,
				new object[3] {"Hello", new DateTime(2004,05,24), 2.1});
			string strActual = Convert.ToString(obj);

			Assert.AreEqual(strExpected,strActual);

		}

	} //end of class

} //end of namespace

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Written By
Web Developer
United States United States
Tim Stall is a Chicago-based technical consultant for Computer Sciences Corporation (www.csc.com), a leading global IT services company. In addition to his expertise in Microsoft.Net development projects and enterprise architecture, Tim's .Net experience includes, writing technical publications, leading internal training, and having MCAD certification. His blog is at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/.

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