Special compiler flag for unit test runs

Question

I have a question concerning visual studios built in test suite. Is VS studio running these tests with some special compiler flags applied?

The problem description is as following. I have overloaded the Equals function on one of my classes. During test runs it would be nice, if it could give me some additional information, which members in the class aren't equal at all.

Therefore I'd like to implement some messages only if the application is running in test mode.

Thanks for any reply! Andreas

Answer 1

VS compiles/builds the projects with the currently selected build configuration. So a solution might be to create a separate build configuration yourself, and then use a constant (e.g. TEST) for the projects in that particular build configuration. The output method execution can then be restricted either with the #if TEST directive or with the [Conditional("TEST")] attribute. You could configure your build server te allways run the tests with that particual build configuration, so you would see additional output. You would however need to switch between the build configurations manually when running the tests from VS

Answer 2

Create a new solution configuration "Test" (if you don't have it yet) and switch to it. Open project settings, switch to the Build tab and define a new symbol TEST. Press OK.

Change your Equals implementation to

public override bool Equals (object obj)
{
    #if TEST
     // Your implementation
    #else
      return base.Equals (obj);
    #endif
}

This will compile a different method body for your test configuration.