If you work in the .NET ecosystem, you are likely using xUnit as your testing framework, and (my personal preference) AwesomeAssertions as your test assertion framework.

As a simple (unrealistic!) example, suppose we wanted to test the algorithm for modulo division with single values.

(It is unrealistic as you would not do it this way in production!)

Your tests would look something like this:

public class EvenOddDetectionTests
{
    [Fact]
    public void Odd_Detection_Works()
    {
        (3 % 2 != 0).Should().BeTrue();
    }

    [Fact]
    public void Even_Detection_Works()
    {
        (4 % 2 == 0).Should().BeTrue();
    }
}

If we run these tests, they should pass.

testResults

Now suppose, for whatever reason, we wanted to skip one of these tests.

There are a couple of options available to us here:

Comment Out The Test

The not-so-subtle option is to comment out the test code.

public class EvenOddDetectionTests
{
    // [Fact]
    // public void Odd_Detection_Works()
    // {
    //     (3 % 2 != 0).Should().BeTrue();
    // }

    [Fact]
    public void Even_Detection_Works()
    {
        (4 % 2 == 0).Should().BeTrue();
    }
}

Since there is literally no code, the test runner doesn’t see it.

noTest

The main problem with this is that you will forget to uncomment it when you need it back.

Remove the Fact Attribute

The other alternative is to remove the [Fact] attribute so the test runner doesn’t see it.

public class EvenOddDetectionTests
{
    // [Fact]
    public void Odd_Detection_Works()
    {
        (3 % 2 != 0).Should().BeTrue();
    }

    [Fact]
    public void Even_Detection_Works()
    {
        (4 % 2 == 0).Should().BeTrue();
    }
}

noTest

This is slightly better than the previous approach because the IDE will warn you about this.

noFactWarning

Here we can see what my IDE of choice, JetBrains Rider, will tell you.

[Skip] Attribute

xUnit has an attribute specifically for this scenario: [Skip].

You pass it the reason that you want to skip the test.

public class EvenOddDetectionTests
{
    [Fact(Skip = "Do not run this before Christmas")]
    private void Odd_Detection_Works()
    {
        (3 % 2 != 0).Should().BeTrue();
    }

    [Fact]
    public void Even_Detection_Works()
    {
        (4 % 2 == 0).Should().BeTrue();
    }
}

This is the best solution for a number of reasons:

  1. It communicates clearly that you meant to skip the test, and it was not an oversight
  2. You explain why it is being skipped for the benefit of anyone else maintaining that code
  3. The IDE will warn about the skipping

skipTest

So you have the best of both worlds.

TLDR

You can skip unit tests by decorating them with the Skip attribute.

The code is in my GitHub.

Happy hacking!