How to Unit Test GetNewValues() which contains EntityFunctions.AddDays function

Question

Below sample code is working fine in production, but cannot be unit tested because the EntityFunctions.

my unit test project is using InMemoryDatabase instead of real SQL database. I can easily solve my problem by creating a View in SQL database with computed column myValue and newValue. I like to find a way to do the unit test work without changing my method and without creating new SQL view

---

public class EcaseReferralCaseRepository : Repository
{

        public class myType
        {
                public DateTime myValue;
                public DateTime newValue;
        }

        public myType GetNewValues()
        {
                return 
                        (myType)(from o in context.EcaseReferralCases
                        select new myType
                        {
                            // LINQ to Entity
                            myValue = (DateTime)System.Data.Objects.EntityFunctions.AddDays(o.StartDate, 0),
                            newValue = (DateTime)System.Data.Objects.EntityFunctions.AddDays(o.StartDate, 30)

                            // LINQ to Object
                            //myValue = o.StartDate.AddDays(0),
                            //newValue = o.StartDate.AddDays(30)

                        });
        }
}

---

This link shows a good example to unit test EntityFunctions, I used that approach to solve one of my unit test difficulty, but don't know how to solve this problem.

Answer 1

Unless I am mistaken, you are going to switch the implementation of the EcaseReferralCases with another IQueryable, probably a LINQ To Objects queryable source.

The most robust way would probably be to use an expression visitor to replace calls to EntityFunctions with your own, L2Objects compatible functions.

Here is my implementation:

using System;
using System.Data.Objects;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;

static class EntityFunctionsFake
{
    public static DateTime? AddDays(DateTime? original, int? numberOfDays)
    {
        if (!original.HasValue || !numberOfDays.HasValue)
        {
            return null;
        }
        return original.Value.AddDays(numberOfDays.Value);
    }
}
public class EntityFunctionsFakerVisitor : ExpressionVisitor
{
    protected override Expression VisitMethodCall(MethodCallExpression node)
    {
        if (node.Method.DeclaringType == typeof(EntityFunctions))
        {
            var visitedArguments = Visit(node.Arguments).ToArray();
            return Expression.Call(typeof(EntityFunctionsFake), node.Method.Name, node.Method.GetGenericArguments(), visitedArguments);
        }

        return base.VisitMethodCall(node);
    }
}
class VisitedQueryProvider<TVisitor> : IQueryProvider
    where TVisitor : ExpressionVisitor, new()
{
    private readonly IQueryProvider _underlyingQueryProvider;
    public VisitedQueryProvider(IQueryProvider underlyingQueryProvider)
    {
        if (underlyingQueryProvider == null) throw new ArgumentNullException();
        _underlyingQueryProvider = underlyingQueryProvider;
    }

    private static Expression Visit(Expression expression)
    {
        return new TVisitor().Visit(expression);
    }

    public IQueryable<TElement> CreateQuery<TElement>(Expression expression)
    {
        return new VisitedQueryable<TElement, TVisitor>(_underlyingQueryProvider.CreateQuery<TElement>(Visit(expression)));
    }

    public IQueryable CreateQuery(Expression expression)
    {
        var sourceQueryable = _underlyingQueryProvider.CreateQuery(Visit(expression));
        var visitedQueryableType = typeof(VisitedQueryable<,>).MakeGenericType(
            sourceQueryable.ElementType,
            typeof(TVisitor)
            );

        return (IQueryable)Activator.CreateInstance(visitedQueryableType, sourceQueryable);
    }

    public TResult Execute<TResult>(Expression expression)
    {
        return _underlyingQueryProvider.Execute<TResult>(Visit(expression));
    }

    public object Execute(Expression expression)
    {
        return _underlyingQueryProvider.Execute(Visit(expression));
    }
}
public class VisitedQueryable<T, TExpressionVisitor> : IOrderedQueryable<T>
    where TExpressionVisitor : ExpressionVisitor, new()
{
    private readonly IQueryable<T> _underlyingQuery;
    private readonly VisitedQueryProvider<TExpressionVisitor> _queryProviderWrapper;
    public VisitedQueryable(IQueryable<T> underlyingQuery)
    {
        _underlyingQuery = underlyingQuery;
        _queryProviderWrapper = new VisitedQueryProvider<TExpressionVisitor>(underlyingQuery.Provider);
    }

    public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
    {
        return _underlyingQuery.GetEnumerator();
    }

    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return GetEnumerator();
    }

    public Expression Expression
    {
        get { return _underlyingQuery.Expression; }
    }

    public Type ElementType
    {
        get { return _underlyingQuery.ElementType; }
    }

    public IQueryProvider Provider
    {
        get { return _queryProviderWrapper; }
    }
}

And here is a usage sample:

var linq2ObjectsSource = new List<DateTime?>() { null }.AsQueryable();
var visitedSource = new VisitedQueryable<DateTime?, EntityFunctionsFakerVisitor>(linq2ObjectsSource);
var visitedQuery = visitedSource.Select(dt => EntityFunctions.AddDays(dt, 1));
var results = visitedQuery.ToList();
Assert.AreEqual(1, results.Count);
Assert.AreEqual(null, results[0]);

In that way, you get all the desirable characteristics:

• Developers can continue to use the standard EntityFunctions defined by Entity Framework;
• Production implementations are still guaranteed to raise exceptions if not running on the database;
• The queries can be tested against a fake repository;

Answer 2

Rather than call

System.Data.Objects.EntityFunctions.AddDays

directly, I would inject a custom interface, which forwards the call to that method but which can then be mocked for testing purposes.

Answer 3

I do like to implement ExpressionVisitor as Jean Hominal recommended. My difficulty is how to define the linq2ObjectsSource, visitedSource and visitedQuery in my case. So finally, I just create an Interface for a method IQuerable GetSelectQuery(IQuerable query), then have corresponding class in Production and Test project which is derived from that interface and have implementation of GetSelectQuery(IQuerable query). It works fine.

public interface IEntityFunctionsExpressions
{
   IQuerable<myType> GetSelectQuery(IQuerable<EcaseReferralCase> query); 
}

in production project:

public class EntityFunctionsExpressions : IEntityFunctionsExpressions
{
    public EntityFunctionsExpressions()
    {
    }

    public IQuerable<myType> GetSelectQuery(IQuerable<EcaseReferralCase> query)
    {
        // Expression for LINQ to Entities, does not work with LINQ to Objects
        return 
                    (myType)(from o in query
                    select new myType
                    {
                        // LINQ to Entity
                        myValue = (DateTime)System.Data.Objects.EntityFunctions.AddDays(o.StartDate, 0),
                        newValue = (DateTime)System.Data.Objects.EntityFunctions.AddDays(o.StartDate, 30)

                    });
    }
}

in unit test project:

public class MockEntityFunctionsExpressions : IEntityFunctionsExpressions
{
    public MockEntityFunctionsExpressions()
    {
    }

    public IQuerable<myType> GetSelectQuery(IQuerable<EcaseReferralCase> query)
    {
        // Expression for LINQ to Objects, does not work with LINQ to Entities
        return 
                    (myType)(from o in query
                    select new myType
                    {
                        // LINQ to Object
                        myValue = o.StartDate.AddDays(0),
                        newValue = o.StartDate.AddDays(30)
                    });
    }
}

then rewrite GetNewValues() method:

public myType GetNewValues() { return myrepository.EntityFunctionsExpressions.GetSelectQuery(context.EcaseReferralCases);

}