Run selected unit tests - .NET (original) (raw)

With the dotnet test command in .NET Core, you can use a filter expression to run selected tests. This article demonstrates how to filter tests. The examples use dotnet test. If you're using vstest.console.exe, replace --filter with --testcasefilter:.

Syntax

dotnet test --filter <Expression>

• Expression is in the format <Property><Operator><Value>[|&<Expression>].
  Expressions can be joined with boolean operators: | for boolean or, & for boolean and.
  Expressions can be enclosed in parentheses. For example: (Name~MyClass) | (Name~MyClass2).
  An expression without any operator is interpreted as a contains on the FullyQualifiedName property. For example, dotnet test --filter xyz is the same as dotnet test --filter FullyQualifiedName~xyz.
• Property is an attribute of the Test Case. For example, the following properties are supported by popular unit test frameworks.

  Test framework	Supported properties
  MSTest	FullyQualifiedNameNameClassNamePriorityTestCategory
  xUnit	FullyQualifiedNameDisplayNameTraits
  Nunit	FullyQualifiedNameNamePriorityTestCategory

• Operators
  • = exact match
  • !=not exact match
  • ~ contains
  • !~ doesn't contain
• Value is a string. All the lookups are case insensitive.

Character escaping

To use an exclamation mark (!) in a filter expression, you have to escape it in some Linux or macOS shells by putting a backslash in front of it (\!). For example, the following filter skips all tests in a namespace that contains IntegrationTests:

dotnet test --filter FullyQualifiedName\!~IntegrationTests

For FullyQualifiedName values that include a comma for generic type parameters, escape the comma with %2C. For example:

dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName=MyNamespace.MyTestsClass<ParameterType1%2CParameterType2>.MyTestMethod"

For Name or DisplayName, use the URL encoding for the special characters. For example, to run a test with the name MyTestMethod and a string value "text", use the following filter:

dotnet test --filter "Name=MyTestMethod \(%22text%22\)"

MSTest examples

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;

namespace MSTestNamespace
{
    [TestClass]
    public class UnitTest1
    {
        [TestMethod, Priority(1), TestCategory("CategoryA")]
        public void TestMethod1()
        {
        }

        [TestMethod, Priority(2)]
        public void TestMethod2()
        {
        }
    }
}

Examples using the conditional operators | and &:

• To run tests that have UnitTest1 in their FullyQualifiedName or TestCategoryAttribute is "CategoryA".

dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1|TestCategory=CategoryA"  

• To run tests that have UnitTest1 in their FullyQualifiedName and have a TestCategoryAttribute of "CategoryA".

dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1&TestCategory=CategoryA"  

• To run tests that have either FullyQualifiedName containing UnitTest1 and have a TestCategoryAttribute of "CategoryA" or have a PriorityAttribute with a priority of 1.

dotnet test --filter "(FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1&TestCategory=CategoryA)|Priority=1"  

xUnit examples

using Xunit;

namespace XUnitNamespace
{
    public class TestClass1
    {
        [Fact, Trait("Priority", "1"), Trait("Category", "CategoryA")]
        public void Test1()
        {
        }

        [Fact, Trait("Priority", "2")]
        public void Test2()
        {
        }
    }
}

In the code example, the defined traits with keys "Category" and "Priority" can be used for filtering.

Examples using the conditional operators | and &:

• To run tests that have TestClass1 in their FullyQualifiedName or have a Trait with a key of "Category" and value of "CategoryA".

dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~TestClass1|Category=CategoryA"  

• To run tests that have TestClass1 in their FullyQualifiedName and have a Trait with a key of "Category" and value of "CategoryA".

dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~TestClass1&Category=CategoryA"  

• To run tests that have either FullyQualifiedName containing TestClass1 and have a Trait with a key of "Category" and value of "CategoryA" or have a Trait with a key of "Priority" and value of 1.

dotnet test --filter "(FullyQualifiedName~TestClass1&Category=CategoryA)|Priority=1"  

NUnit examples

using NUnit.Framework;

namespace NUnitNamespace
{
    public class UnitTest1
    {
        [Test, Property("Priority", 1), Category("CategoryA")]
        public void TestMethod1()
        {
        }

        [Test, Property("Priority", 2)]
        public void TestMethod2()
        {
        }
    }
}

Examples using the conditional operators | and &:

To run tests that have UnitTest1 in their FullyQualifiedName or have a Category of "CategoryA".

dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1|TestCategory=CategoryA"

To run tests that have UnitTest1 in their FullyQualifiedName and have a Category of "CategoryA".

dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1&TestCategory=CategoryA"

To run tests that have either a FullyQualifiedName containing UnitTest1 and have a Category of "CategoryA" or have a Property with a "Priority" of 1.

dotnet test --filter "(FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1&TestCategory=CategoryA)|Priority=1"

For more information, see TestCase filter.

See also

• dotnet test
• dotnet test --filter

Next steps