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| title | pubDate | permalink | tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Write the test backwards | 2023-04-27 | daily/2023/04/27/tdd-write-the-test-backwards |
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When writing a test, something that I like to do is start by writing the first assertion first, and then work backwards.
My first assertion might be self::assertTrue($result).
If I ran this test, it would fail because of the undefined $result variable - but it's clear to me what I need next by asking, "Where does $result come from?".
If I need to call a method on another class and get the result, I'll add it before the assertion. Then I repeat the process and ask, "What do I need for this to work?".
Maybe I need to create some users or content in the application for the class to query and return a result based on it, so I'll create those.
With this approach, I'm not making any assumptions about the test's prerequisites, and I usually find that I end up with cleaner and more focused tests.