How to get the unit test method name at runtime from within the unit test?

Question

How to get the unit test name from the within unit test?

I have the below method inside a BaseTestFixture Class:

public string GetCallerMethodName()
{
    var stackTrace = new StackTrace();
    StackFrame stackFrame = stackTrace.GetFrame(1);
    MethodBase methodBase = stackFrame.GetMethod();
    return methodBase.Name;
}

My Test Fixture class inherits from the base one:

[TestFixture]
public class WhenRegisteringUser : BaseTestFixture
{
}

and I have the below system test:

[Test]
public void ShouldRegisterThenVerifyEmailThenSignInSuccessfully_WithValidUsersAndSites()
{
    string testMethodName = this.GetCallerMethodName();
    //
}

When I run this from within the Visual Studio, it returns my test method name as expected.

When this runs by TeamCity, instead _InvokeMethodFast() is returned which seems to be a method that TeamCity generates at runtime for its own use.

So how could I get the test method name at runtime?

Do you get the assembly info for each method called in the stack? Maybe you could walk up the stack looking for your test assembly. — George Duckett, Mar 12 '12 at 12:00
A stacktrace would help, to see if the actual method name is listed farther up the call stack. — Joachim Isaksson, Mar 12 '12 at 12:01
You have more than 60 questions without an accepted. Do find that respectful to the people helping you? — Rune FS, Mar 12 '12 at 12:07

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 12 '12 at 12:00

26

If you are using NUnit 2.5.7 / 2.6 you can use the TestContext class:

[Test]
public void ShouldRegisterThenVerifyEmailThenSignInSuccessfully()
{
    string testMethodName = TestContext.CurrentContext.Test.Name;
}

answered Mar 12 '12 at 12:00

nemesv

138,284
16
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2

MSTest also exposes this info in its TestContext as well – bryanbcook Mar 13 '12 at 05:39
It now runs fine from TeamCity but when I run it locally from within Visual Studio, it throws an exception that an object is not initialized. So how to make it work from within Visual studio? – The Light Mar 15 '12 at 11:19
@William Wich test runner are you using? – nemesv Mar 15 '12 at 11:50
This answer still works in 2022 with NUnit 3.13. – Mike Grove aka Theophilus Jan 04 '22 at 14:37

score 23 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 24 '15 at 13:39

When using Visual Studio to run your tests if you add a TestContext property in your test class you can get this information easily.

[TestClass]
public class MyTestClass
{
    public TestContext TestContext { get; set; }

    [TestInitialize]
    public void setup()
    {
        logger.Info(" SETUP " + TestContext.TestName);
        // .... //
    }
}

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 12 '12 at 12:20

7

If you are not using NUnit you can loop over the stack and find the test method:

foreach(var stackFrame in stackTrace.GetFrames()) {
  MethodBase methodBase = stackFrame.GetMethod();
  Object[] attributes = methodBase.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestAttribute), false);
  if (attributes.Length >= 1) {
    return methodBase.Name;
  } 
}
return "Not called from a test method";

answered Mar 12 '12 at 12:20

Michael Lloyd Lee mlk

14,561
3
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Do you know if this only works on MSTest? Or it will work on both NUnit and MSTest? – Yoiku Dec 10 '15 at 16:02
You would need to change the annotation to be the right annotation for the test framework. However as the accepted answer points out, NUnit has a TestContext which is a better solution. – Michael Lloyd Lee mlk Dec 15 '15 at 17:32
Thanks for the answer, I was asking because I am trying to build a FW and I dont want to restrict myself to NUnit or MSTest. So I think what I will do is to loop the stack from the bottom to the top until I find a method which it namespace is not from Microsoft or System. I have tried this and I got good results with MSTest and calling the FW from a command line program (I got the main method). – Yoiku Dec 16 '15 at 18:59
please note that in Release builds this sometimes does not work - the test method may be inlined and you will not be able to see the TestAttribute – imaximchuk Oct 04 '17 at 23:18
Here's a LINQ one-liner `string testName = new StackTrace().GetFrames()?.Select(stackFrame => stackFrame.GetMethod()).FirstOrDefault(m => m.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestAttribute), false).Any())?.Name ?? "Not called from a test method";` – Alain Mar 30 '20 at 15:11

score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 05 '13 at 12:13

Thanks guys; I used a combined approach so it now works in all environments:

public string GetTestMethodName()
{
    try
    {
        // for when it runs via TeamCity
        return TestContext.CurrentContext.Test.Name;
    }
    catch
    {
        // for when it runs via Visual Studio locally
        var stackTrace = new StackTrace(); 
        foreach (var stackFrame in stackTrace.GetFrames())
        {
            MethodBase methodBase = stackFrame.GetMethod();
            Object[] attributes = methodBase.GetCustomAttributes(
                                      typeof(TestAttribute), false); 
            if (attributes.Length >= 1)
            {
                return methodBase.Name;
            }
        }
        return "Not called from a test method";  
    }
}

please note that in Release builds this sometimes does not work - the test method may be inlined and you will not be able to see the TestAttribute — imaximchuk, Oct 04 '17 at 23:18

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 29 '15 at 10:45

If you are not using Nunit or any other third party tool. you will not get TestAttribute.

So you can do this to get Test Method name. Use TestMethodAttribute insted of TestAttribute.

    public string GetTestMethodName()
    {
            // for when it runs via Visual Studio locally
            var stackTrace = new StackTrace();
            foreach (var stackFrame in stackTrace.GetFrames())
            {
                MethodBase methodBase = stackFrame.GetMethod();
                Object[] attributes = methodBase.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestMethodAttribute), false);
                if (attributes.Length >= 1)
                {
                    return methodBase.Name;
                }
            }
            return "Not called from a test method";
    }

Here it is as a LINQ one-liner: Here's a LINQ one-liner `public string GetTestMethodName() => new StackTrace().GetFrames()?.Select(stackFrame => stackFrame.GetMethod()).FirstOrDefault(m => m.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestMethodAttribute), false).Any())?.Name ?? "Not called from a test method";` — Alain, Mar 30 '20 at 15:12

How to get the unit test method name at runtime from within the unit test?

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