The right way to catch assertion failure in NUnit

Question

Hello. I'm writing an integration tests for my database, and I've got one question. At the beginning of a test method I'm adding some objects to database and at the end of the method I should remove it.

So I've got a code like:

var group = new ContactGroup { Name = UserLogin + "_test_group" };
group.ID = _provider.AddGroup(UserLogin, group);
Assert.That(_provider.GetGroup(UserLogin, group.ID), Is.Not.Null);
_provider.RemoveGroup(UserLogin, group.ID);

The point is that if assertion fails, RemoveGroup won't be executed. What can I do about it?

If i try this:

var group = new ContactGroup { Name = UserLogin + "_test_group" };
group.ID = _provider.AddGroup(UserLogin, group);
try
{
    Assert.That(_provider.GetGroup(UserLogin, group.ID), Is.Not.Null);
}
finally
{
    _provider.RemoveGroup(UserLogin, group.ID);
}

should I rethrow AssertionException like this

catch (AssertionException)
{
    throw;
}

?

Answer 1

Use the a tear down method. The tear down method is executed right after every test.

   [TearDown]
    public void TearDown()
    {
       _provider.RemoveGroup(UserLogin, group.ID);
    }

Answer 2

One way to handle cleanup in database integration tests is to execute the test in a transaction, which is then rolled back once the test has completed.

Answer 3

The DBUnit people recomemend destorying on start up rather than shutdown (Good setup don't need cleanup!) and is what I do. So the start of the test removes any data the test does not expect.