Using Files In Unit Tests

One of the ten commandments in Unit Testing states “Thou shalt not access files during unit tests” (check it out here).
I can’t agree to that entirely, as I have been involved in a system whose main functionality dealt with files. In order to make that system unit tested, we had to permit file access for our unit tests. But these days I am working on a project which heavily relies on text analysis, and for this I find CommentReader extremely comfortable.
In a sentence, CommentReader allows you to use text from your test’s comment block inside your unit test. For example:

/// <input>

/// This is my input 

/// </input>

[ Test ] 

public void YourTestName() 

{ 

     string input = CommentReader.GetElement( “input” ); 

     // input == “This is my input” 

     ... 

} 

This way you can make sure your test resources goes along with your test (if you make sure to enable Xml comments, of course) and no other test.
I think its a very elegant solution, as it immediately states what the test’s intentions are. You don’t have to open Xml documents for that any more.

http://www.bestbrains.dk/dansk.aspx/Artikler/Using_Files_In_Unit_Tests