Is Assert.Fail() considered bad practice?

Question

I use Assert.Fail a lot when doing TDD. I\'m usually working on one test at a time but when I get ideas for things I want to implement later I quickly write an empty test where

Answer 1

Personally I have no problem with using a test suite as a todo list like this as long as you eventually get around to writing the test before you implement the code to pass.

Having said that, I used to use this approach myself, although now I'm finding that doing so leads me down a path of writing too many tests upfront, which in a weird way is like the reverse problem of not writing tests at all: you end up making decisions about design a little too early IMHO.

Incidentally in MSTest, the standard Test template uses Assert.Inconclusive at the end of its samples.

AFAIK the xUnit.NET framework is intended to be extremely lightweight and yes they did cut Fail deliberately, to encourage the developer to use an explicit failure condition.