What are table-driven tests in Go and why are they the standard testing pattern?

Table-driven tests define all test cases as a slice of structs, then iterate over them with a single test loop. This is Go's idiomatic testing pattern — adopted throughout the standard library. It eliminates duplication, makes adding new cases trivial, and produces clear failure output identifying exactly which case failed.

// Function under test
func validateEmail(email string) error {
    if email == "" {
        return errors.New("email is required")
    }
    if !strings.Contains(email, "@") {
        return fmt.Errorf("email %q has no @ symbol", email)
    }
    return nil
}

// Table-driven test
func TestValidateEmail(t *testing.T) {
    tests := []struct {
        name    string
        email   string
        wantErr bool
        errMsg  string // optional: check error message substring
    }{
        {
            name:    "valid email",
            email:   "alice@example.com",
            wantErr: false,
        },
        {
            name:    "empty email",
            email:   "",
            wantErr: true,
            errMsg:  "required",
        },
        {
            name:    "missing @ symbol",
            email:   "notanemail",
            wantErr: true,
            errMsg:  "no @ symbol",
        },
        {
            name:    "@ symbol only",
            email:   "@",
            wantErr: false, // technically valid by our rule
        },
    }

    for _, tt := range tests {
        t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
            err := validateEmail(tt.email)

            if (err != nil) != tt.wantErr {
                t.Errorf("validateEmail(%q): got err = %v, wantErr = %v",
                    tt.email, err, tt.wantErr)
                return
            }
            if tt.wantErr && tt.errMsg != "" {
                if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), tt.errMsg) {
                    t.Errorf("error %q does not contain %q",
                        err.Error(), tt.errMsg)
                }
            }
        })
    }
}

// Run only a specific subtest:
// go test -run TestValidateEmail/empty_email ./...

t.Run benefits: each subtest gets its own scope in test output. Failed subtests show the test name, making debugging immediate. You can run a specific subtest with -run TestFoo/case_name. Parallel subtests are supported with t.Parallel() inside the subtest function.

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