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How to: Generate a Unit Test

You can create unit tests in several ways. You can generate unit tests from your production code, as described in the following procedure, and then edit them to work the way you want. Or, you can author unit tests by hand, as described in How to: Author a Unit Test.

Implementing Unit Tests

When you generate unit tests, one unit test method is created for each method of production code that you have selected in the Create Unit Tests dialog box; this is explained in the following procedure. Each generated unit test calls the Inconclusive method, which causes the test to fail because the test is unimplemented. The next step is to implement the test by adding meaningful code that checks the correct operation of the method being tested. For more information, see How to: Author a Unit Test.

To generate a unit test

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click a test project, point to Add, and then click Unit Test.

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    In Solution Explorer, right-click a test project, point to Add, and then click New Test. In the Add New Test dialog box, click Unit Test Wizard and then click OK.

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    In the Test Manager window or the Test View window, right-click the surface of the window and click New Test. In the Add New Test dialog box, click Unit Test Wizard and then click OK.

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    In the Visual Studio code editor, right-click a namespace, class, or method that you want to test, and select Create Unit Tests.

    This displays the Create Unit Tests dialog box.

    A tree structure displays the class and member hierarchy of the assembly that houses your code. You can use this page to generate unit tests for any selection of those members or classes, and to choose a project into which you want the generated unit tests to be placed. The code elements initially selected in the tree structure are the element that you right-clicked plus any child elements it contains. The selection is based on the current cursor position.

  2. (Optional) Click Filter to change the contents of the displayed class and member hierarchy.

  3. (Optional) Select additional code elements by checking their boxes.

  4. (Optional) Click Settings to change configuration settings for this generation of tests. For example, you can change the default naming options for test files, classes, and methods to be generated. When finished, click OK.

  5. Click OK.

    If the test project for your solution does not already have a file that contains a test class, this action creates one and opens the file. The class is populated with an Initialize() method, a Cleanup() method, and methods to test the code elements you selected in steps 1 and 2. Solution Explorer displays the new test file in your test project.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Author a Unit Test

Concepts

Unit Tests Overview

Other Resources

Creating Unit Tests
Managing Tests
Running Tests
Test Results and Analysis