How To Set Elements Of An Array Of A Private Type Using Visual Studio Shadows

Visual Studio uses Publicize to create accessors public for private members and types of a type.

But when you try to set elements of a private array of elements of a private type, things get complicated.

Imagine this hypothetic class to test:

public static class MyClass
{
    private static readonly MyInnerClass[] myArray = new MyInnerClass[10];

    public static bool IsEmpty()
    {
        foreach (var item in myArray)
        {
            if ((item != null) && (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(item.Field)))
            {
                return false;
            }
        }

        return true;
    }

    private class MyInnerClass
    {
        public string Field;
    }
}

If I want to write a test for the case when the array has “non empty” entries, I need to setup the array first.

Using the accessors generated by Visual Studio, I would write something like this:

[TestClass()]
public class MyClassTest
{
    [TestMethod()]
    public void IsEmpty_NotEmpty_ReturnsFalse()
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            MyClass_Accessor.myArray[i] = 
		new MyClass_Accessor.MyInnerClass { Field = i.ToString() };
        }

        bool expected = false;
        bool actual;

        actual = MyClass.IsEmpty();

        Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual);
    }
}

But the test will fail because, although the elements of the private array myArray can be read as MyClass_Accessor.MyInnerClass instances, they can't be written as such.

To do so, the test would have to be written like this:

[TestClass()]
public class MyClassTest
{
    [TestMethod()]
    public void IsEmpty_NotEmpty_ReturnsFalse()
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            MyClass_Accessor.ShadowedType.SetStaticArrayElement
		("myArray", new MyClass_Accessor.MyInnerClass 
		{ Field = i.ToString() }.Target, i);
        }

        bool expected = false;
        bool actual;

        actual = MyClass.IsEmpty();

        Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual);
    }
}

But, this way, we lose all the strong typing of the accessors because we need to write the name of the array field.

Because the accessor for the field is a property, we could write a set of extension methods that take care of getting the field name for us. Something like this:

public static class PrivateypeExtensions
{
    public static void SetStaticArrayElement<T>
	(this PrivateType self, Expression<Func<T[]>> expression, 
	T value, params int[] indices)
    {
        object elementValue = (value is BaseShadow) ? 
		(value as BaseShadow).Target : value;

        self.SetStaticArrayElement(
            ((PropertyInfo)((MemberExpression)(expression.Body)).Member).Name,
            elementValue,
            indices);
    }

    public static void SetStaticArrayElement<T>
	(this PrivateType self, Expression<Func<T[]>> 
	expression, BindingFlags invokeAttr, T value, params int[] indices)
    {
        object elementValue = (value is BaseShadow) ? 
		(value as BaseShadow).Target : value;

        self.SetStaticArrayElement(
            ((PropertyInfo)((MemberExpression)(expression.Body)).Member).Name,
            invokeAttr,
            elementValue,
            indices);
    }
}

Now, we can write the test like this:

[TestClass()]
public class MyClassTest
{
    [TestMethod()]
    public void IsEmpty_NotEmpty_ReturnsFalse()
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            MyClass_Accessor.ShadowedType.SetStaticArrayElement(() => 
		MyClass_Accessor.myArray, new MyClass_Accessor.MyInnerClass 
		{ Field = i.ToString() }, i);
        }

        bool expected = false;
        bool actual;

        actual = MyClass.IsEmpty();

        Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual);
    }
}

It’s not the same as the first form, but it’s strongly typed and we'll get a compiler error instead of a test run error if we change the name of the myArray field.

You can find this and other tools on the PauloMorgado.TestTools on CodePlex.