Unit testing: why is the expected argument always first in equality tests?

Question

Why is it that every unit testing framework (that I know of) requires the expected value in equality tests to always be the first argument:

Assert.AreEqual(42         


        

Answer 1

Well they had to pick one convention. If you want to reverse it try the Hamcrest matchers. They are meant to help increase readability. Here is a basic sample:

import org.junit.Test;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertThat;
import static org.hamcrest.core.Is.is;

public HamcrestTest{
   @Test
   public void matcherShouldWork(){
       assertThat(   Math.pow( 2, 3 ),  is( 8 )  );
   }
}