As per the PIE principle (Program Intently and Expressively) the code we write must clearly communicate the intent behind. This can be applicable to the test code as well. Let's see this with a simple test case example of adding two numbers.
Test objective:- Validate the overflow condition when we increment max integer limit by one.
The first test method below has few visible issues:
- Addition of more comments to express the intent.
- There are some magic numbers present (Example: 2147483647)
- Naming conventions used are not expressive enough to convey the intent of the test.
The second test is refactored as per the PIE principle and is more readable and clean which does not need any additional comments to express the test intent.
Note: We can use support provided by IDE to refactor code. For example Eclipse IDE has Refactor menu options which are very handy(Eclipse Refactoring Menu).