Parameter order in assertEqual() statements

[behrtam]

We have both ways of ordering the parameters actual, expected result of the assertEqual() method.

While the Python implementation uses indifferent names (first, second - code) all examples use the order actual followed by expected (python doc – basic-example).

self.assertEqual('foo'.upper(), 'FOO')
self.assertEqual(s.split(), ['hello', 'world'])

I think it would be better to be consistent within this track. As I personally don't have any preferences I would just follow the official python documentation examples and default to self.assertEqual(actual, expected).

@rootulp @pheanex do you have any opinions about this?

[pheanex]

(actual, expected) looks good to me. I am in favour of consistency.

[rootulp]

I think conforming to the Python doc basic example is a god idea. (Actual, expected) seems right.

[nikclayton]

FYI -- if you run the tests in PyCharm (as I'm doing with my students) PyCharm shows the Expected/Actual results in the wrong order. The JetBrains bug for this behaviour is https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/PY-27267.

[cmccandless]

@nikclayton thank you for adding that info here.

We've run into that issue before here, but it's good to document it as a known issue.