How can I dynamically get the number of records from a changing field?

Question

In the bottom of tables in our application, we have a field that says, "Showing x to x of x entries", where x is the number of entries in the table.

I am trying to create a function that can save the last 'x' value in the above string to compare it to a new value after a record is deleted.

For instance...

• The text is, 'Showing items 1 - 100 of 100'
• (I want to store the last 100 number as x for assertion)
• Delete 1 record
• The text is, 'Showing items 1 - 99 of 99'
• (I want to store the last 99 number as y for assertion)

Is there any straight forward way to store these values with C# or Selenium? The problem is that when the test is run, the x and y values above will consistently be different because of other tests that run previously. I know that long term I should have consistent data for tests but right now that is a problem for later.

Answer 1

The simplest storage is local variables, nice and clean and contained:

[TestFixture]
public class MyTests {
  [Test]
  public void YourTest() {
    var number = 0;

    number = myPageObjectModel.GetResultCount();

    myPageObjectModel.Delete();

    Assert.AreEqual(number - 1, myPageObjectModel.GetResultCount());
  }
}

You could store the number on the class and it would be more widely available, but I feel this would start coupling your tests as they would have to run in a specific order, so I'd recommend starting with a local variable if you can.

If you are using a technology that forces you to skip between methods in different classes (like SpecFlow) it is better to preserve state between steps in a scenario context class.