Is it bad form to count on the order of your NUnit unit tests

Question

I have been creating Unit tests like crazy and find that I\'m often having to set up something in one test that I just tore down in a previous test. Is it ever reasonable to cr

Answer 1

If you have stateful tests (a common problem with database work - which is what I do when I'm not on SO), then it seems to me that avoiding order within a test file is not absolutely necessary. However, you have to recognize that if you have 2 tests, with test 2 depending on test 1 passing, then you will get a 'catastrophic' double failure if test 1 fails, because test 2 doesn't have the expected setup (and, what's more, you want to worry if test 2 does pass after test 1 failed if you think that test 2 depends on test 1 passing).

That's why you want the tests independent whenever possible - both intra-file and inter-file.

It would be very unwise to depend on the order between (sets of) tests in different files.