"What have I kept back?"
-- Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
Act V, Scene II, Line 147.2
Anyone who has paired with me while working in C# knows that I am addicted to AutoFixture. Now I do not try to add it to everything that I am working, but usually it finds its way into whatever I am working on. Why? Simply put, using AutoFixture allows me to focus on the task at hand.
Here is a quick example:
In this example I am implementing the higher order function Map using the higher order function Fold (see my other post if this interested you).
What do you not see in the tests? The setting up of the test data.
Why? It is not important to the task at hand. We do not need it to test the behavior of Map. Map takes a collection and a function and applies the function against every member of the collection producing a new collection. What we want to verify is the applies part, which only requires a collection and a function, the actual members of the collection (and the function) do not matter for this verification.
Staying focus on the task at hand is the power of a test fixture and having someone else implement the test fixture for you is even better. Using AutoFixture with xUnit you really do not need to think about setting up test data at all and that is good thing.
