How to unit test a method that contains a struct as a parameter?

Question

I am writing a unit test for a method that takes a struct as a parameter.

I created an instance of the class with the method I want to test in the TestClass but I cannot access its struct member even though it is set as public in the class.

Am I missing something or is this not possible?

Here is the code for the class:

public class Patient
{
    public struct patientInfo
    {
        public string firstName;
        public string lastName;
        public string telephoneNumber;
        public string dateOfBirth;
        public string gender;         
        public string address;
    }

 // Method I want to test:
 public bool Register(patientInfo patientDetails)
 {
      // Method code in here.
 }

Code for the test class:

[TestClass]
public class RegisterPatientTest
{       
    [TestMethod]
    public void RegisterMethodTest()
    {

        Patient TestPatient = new Patient();

        TestPatient. //Can't access the struct member...            

        // What I want to use the struct for but gives error:  
        Assert.IsTrue(TestPatient.Register(patientDetails) == false);    
    }
}

Answer 1

You´ll need Patient.patientInfo to access the struct. The struct doesn´t belong to a specific instance of your class. In fact you need the name of the surrounding class as identier for your inner one, as if your surrounding class would be a namespace . So to create an instance of your struct use new Patient.patienInfo { ... } .

Apart from this you can use the Assert.IsFalse which makes your code clearer. So you get this:

[TestMethod]
public void RegisterMethodTest()
{
    var p = new Patient();

    Patient.patientInfo info;
    info.firstName = ...

    // What I want to use the struct for but gives error:  
    Assert.IsFalse(p.Register(info));    
}

However I can´t see any use of having this nested struct at all. You can have the properties directly in your class making your code-structure far easier:

public class Patient
{
    public string firstName;
    public string lastName;
    public string telephoneNumber;
    public string dateOfBirth;
    public string gender;         
    public string address;
}

Now simply call this in your test:

var p = new Patient { firstName = ... };
Assert.IsFalse(myPatient.Register());

Answer 2

You have to access your struct this way:

var info = new Patient.patientInfo();

This struct is not a member -- its definition is just nested, so you have to specify its containing class ( Patient. ) to get access.

Try this instead:

public class Patient
{
    // Member:
    public PatientInfo Info;

    // Struct definition:
    public struct PatientInfo // Use UpperCamelCase
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Now you can access your member:

new Patient().Info = //...