Tests can assert multiple things
Similar to "a method should only have one return statement", I've seen similar advice when working with tests: "Tests should only have a single assertion".
I don't think this is true, and in my experience, you need multiple assertions to have a thorough test.
And, whilst similar assertions add some duplication, they can make the intent clearer and give better error messages.
Instead, I focus on one test case per test.
If I'm testing the following:
- A blog page exists.
- Only post nodes are visible.
- Only published posts are visible,
- Posts are returned in a specified order.
These will be split into separate tests - making it easier to read and maintain the code and have faster execution times by running only the tests I want with the minimum amount of code in each - regardless of how many assertions are in each.
- Oliver
