Access ScalaTest test name from inside test?

Create your own trait, let say RichFreeSpec.

trait RichFreeSpec extends Free {
  protected final class RichFreeSpecStringWrapper(name: scala.Predef.String) {
    def in(f: String => scala.Unit) {
      def f2 = f(name)
      new WordSpecStringWrapper(string).in(f2)
    }
  }  

  protected implicit def convertToRichFreeSpecStringWrapper(n: scala.Predef.String): = {
    new RichFreeSpecStringWrapper(n)
  }
}

Than just use:

"sth" in { testName => 
   ...
 }

Of course, you can go further and implement the full name hierarchy.

The intended way to do that is to override withFixture and capture the test data. In this use case, it is better to override withFixture in fixture.FreeSpec so you can pass the test data into each test rather than using a var. Info on that is here:

http://www.artima.com/docs-scalatest-2.0.M5/org/scalatest/FreeSpec.html#withFixtureNoArgTest

When I saw your question this morning I realized ScalaTest should have a trait that does this, so I just added one. It will be in 2.0.M6, the next milestone release, but in the meantime you can use a local copy. Here it is:

import org.scalatest._

/**
 * Trait that when mixed into a <code>fixture.Suite</code> passes the
 * <code>TestData</code> passed to <code>withFixture</code> as a fixture into each test.
 *
 * @author Bill Venners
 */
trait TestDataFixture { this: fixture.Suite =>

  /**
   * The type of the fixture, which is <code>TestData</code>.
   */
  type FixtureParam = TestData

  /**
   * Invoke the test function, passing to the the test function to itself, because
   * in addition to being the test function, it is the <code>TestData</code> for the test.
   *
   * <p>
   * To enable stacking of traits that define <code>withFixture(NoArgTest)</code>, this method does not
   * invoke the test function directly. Instead, it delegates responsibility for invoking the test function
   * to <code>withFixture(NoArgTest)</code>.
   * </p>
   *
   * @param test the <code>OneArgTest</code> to invoke, passing in the
   *   <code>TestData</code> fixture
   */
  def withFixture(test: OneArgTest) {
    withFixture(test.toNoArgTest(test))
  }
}

You would use it like this:

import org.scalatest._

class MySpec extends fixture.FreeSpec with TestDataFixture {
  "this technique" - {
    "should work" in { td =>
      assert(td.name == "this technique should work")
     }
    "should be easy" in { td =>
      assert(td.name == "this technique should be easy")
    }
  }
}