Should it be “Arrange-Assert-Act-Assert”?

Question

Regarding the classic test pattern of Arrange-Act-Assert, I frequently find myself adding a counter-assertion that precedes Act. This way I know that the passing assertion

Answer 1

Have a look at Wikipedia's entry on Design by Contract. The Arrange-Act-Assert holy trinity is an attempt to encode some of the same concepts and is about proving program correctness. From the article:

The notion of a contract extends down to the method/procedure level; the
contract for each method will normally contain the following pieces of
information:

    Acceptable and unacceptable input values or types, and their meanings
    Return values or types, and their meanings
    Error and exception condition values or types that can occur, and their meanings
    Side effects
    Preconditions
    Postconditions
    Invariants
    (more rarely) Performance guarantees, e.g. for time or space used

There is a tradeoff between the amount of effort spent on setting this up and the value it adds. A-A-A is a useful reminder for the minimum steps required but shouldn't discourage anyone from creating additional steps.