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POIs conditional compilation a valid mock/stub strategy for unit testing?
 

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    <p>In a recent question on stubbing, many answers suggested C# interfaces or delegates for implementing stubs, but <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43711/whats-a-good-way-to-overwrite-datetimenow-during-testing#43718">one answer</a> suggested using conditional compilation, retaining static binding in the production code. This answer was modded -2 at the time of reading, so at least 2 people really thought this was a <em>wrong</em> answer. Perhaps misuse of DEBUG was the reason, or perhaps use of fixed value instead of more extensive validation. But I can't help wondering:</p> <p>Is the use of conditional compilation an inappropriate technique for implementing unit test stubs? Sometimes? Always?</p> <p>Thanks.</p> <p><strong>Edit-add:</strong> I'd like to add an example as a though experiment:</p> <pre><code>class Foo { public Foo() { .. } private DateTime Now { get { #if UNITTEST_Foo return Stub_DateTime.Now; #else return DateTime.Now; #endif } } // .. rest of Foo members } </code></pre> <p>comparing to</p> <pre><code>interface IDateTimeStrategy { DateTime Now { get; } } class ProductionDateTimeStrategy : IDateTimeStrategy { public DateTime Now { get { return DateTime.Now; } } } class Foo { public Foo() : Foo(new ProductionDateTimeStrategy()) {} public Foo(IDateTimeStrategy s) { datetimeStrategy = s; .. } private IDateTime_Strategy datetimeStrategy; private DateTime Now { get { return datetimeStrategy.Now; } } } </code></pre> <p>Which allows the outgoing dependency on "DateTime.Now" to be stubbed through a C# interface. However, we've now added a dynamic dispatch call where static would suffice, the object is larger even in the production version, and we've added a new failure path for Foo's constructor (allocation can fail). </p> <p>Am I worrying about nothing here? Thanks for the feedback so far!</p>
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