Should I change the naming convention for my unit

Question

I currently use a simple convention for my unit tests. If I have a class named "EmployeeReader", I create a test class named "EmployeeReader.Tests. I then create all the tests for the class in the test class with names such as:

• Reading_Valid_Employee_Data_Correctly_Generates_Employee_Object
• Reading_Missing_Employee_Data_Throws_Invalid_Employee_ID_Exception

and so on.

I have recently been reading about a different type of naming convention used in BDD. I like the readability of this naming, to end up with a list of tests something like:

• When_Reading_Valid_Employee (fixture)
  • Employee_Object_Is_Generated (method)
  • Employee_Has_Correct_ID (method)
• When_Reading_Missing_Employee (fixture)
  • An_Invalid_Employee_ID_Exception_Is_Thrown (method)

and so on.

Has anybody used both styles of naming? Can you provide any advice, benefits, drawbacks, gotchas, etc. to help me decide whether to switch or not for my next project?

Answer 1

I feel the second is better because it makes your unit tests more readable to others as long lines make the code look more difficult to read or make it more difficult to skim through. If you still feel there's any ambiguity as for what the test does, you can add comments to clarify this.