Using Mocha, I am attempting to test whether a constructor throws an error. I haven't been able to do this using the expect syntax, so I'd like to do the following:
it('should throw exception when instantiated', function() {
try {
new ErrorThrowingObject();
// Force the test to fail since error wasn't thrown
}
catch (error) {
// Constructor threw Error, so test succeeded.
}
}
Is this possible?
Using the should.js library with should.fail
var should = require('should')
it('should fail', function(done) {
try {
new ErrorThrowingObject();
// Force the test to fail since error wasn't thrown
should.fail('no error was thrown when it should have been')
}
catch (error) {
// Constructor threw Error, so test succeeded.
done();
}
});
Alternative you can use the should throwError
(function(){
throw new Error('failed to baz');
}).should.throwError(/^fail.*/)
And with chai using the throw api
var expect = require('chai').expect
it('should fail', function(done) {
function throwsWithNoArgs() {
var args {} // optional arguments here
new ErrorThrowingObject(args)
}
expect(throwsWithNoArgs).to.throw
done()
});
If you are using should.js you can do (new ErrorThrowingObject).should.throw('Option Error Text or Regular Expression here')
If you don't want to should a separate library, you could also do something like this:
it('should do whatever', function(done) {
try {
...
} catch(error) {
done();
}
}
This way, you know the error is caught if the test finishes. Otherwise, you will get a timeout error.
Chai's Assert API contains a fail() method. The documentation describes four parameters, but calling assert.fail() without any parameters fails the test as desired.
This can be used within try { .. } catch (e) { .. } blocks as described in the question, or in .then( .. ).catch( .. ) blocks of promises.