RSpec Cheat Sheet

RSpec Cheat Sheet.md

Controller Tests

render_views # If called within a describe, context, or whole spec will allow to use: 
expect(response.body).to have_content "..."

Built-in matchers

Equivalence

expect(actual).to eq(expected)  # passes if actual == expected
expect(actual).to eql(expected) # passes if actual.eql?(expected)
expect(actual).not_to eql(not_expected) # passes if not(actual.eql?(expected))

Identity

expect(actual).to be(expected)    # passes if actual.equal?(expected)
expect(actual).to equal(expected) # passes if actual.equal?(expected)

Comparisons

expect(actual).to be >  expected
expect(actual).to be >= expected
expect(actual).to be <= expected
expect(actual).to be <  expected
expect(actual).to be_within(delta).of(expected)

Regular expressions

expect(actual).to match(/expression/)

Types/classes

expect(actual).to be_an_instance_of(expected) # passes if actual.class == expected
expect(actual).to be_a(expected)              # passes if actual.kind_of?(expected)
expect(actual).to be_an(expected)             # an alias for be_a
expect(actual).to be_a_kind_of(expected)      # another alias

Truthiness

expect(actual).to be_truthy   # passes if actual is truthy (not nil or false)
expect(actual).to be true     # passes if actual == true
expect(actual).to be_falsy    # passes if actual is falsy (nil or false)
expect(actual).to be false    # passes if actual == false
expect(actual).to be_nil      # passes if actual is nil
expect(actual).to_not be_nil  # passes if actual is not nil

Expecting errors

expect { ... }.to raise_error
expect { ... }.to raise_error(ErrorClass)
expect { ... }.to raise_error("message")
expect { ... }.to raise_error(ErrorClass, "message")

Expecting throws

expect { ... }.to throw_symbol
expect { ... }.to throw_symbol(:symbol)
expect { ... }.to throw_symbol(:symbol, 'value')

Expecting Sidekiq Job

expect do
  post :create, user: { email: "example@example.com" }
end.to change { Sidekiq::Worker.jobs.count }.by(1)

Yielding

expect { |b| 5.tap(&b) }.to yield_control # passes regardless of yielded args
expect { |b| yield_if_true(true, &b) }.to yield_with_no_args # passes only if no args are yielded
expect { |b| 5.tap(&b) }.to yield_with_args(5)
expect { |b| 5.tap(&b) }.to yield_with_args(Fixnum)
expect { |b| "a string".tap(&b) }.to yield_with_args(/str/)
expect { |b| [1, 2, 3].each(&b) }.to yield_successive_args(1, 2, 3)
expect { |b| { :a => 1, :b => 2 }.each(&b) }.to yield_successive_args([:a, 1], [:b, 2])

Predicate matchers

expect(actual).to be_xxx         # passes if actual.xxx?
expect(actual).to have_xxx(:arg) # passes if actual.has_xxx?(:arg)

# Examples
expect(actual).to have_http_status(:success)

Ranges (Ruby >= 1.9 only)

expect(1..10).to cover(3)

Collection membership

expect(actual).to include(expected)
expect(actual).to start_with(expected)
expect(actual).to end_with(expected)

expect(actual).to contain_exactly(individual, items)
# ...which is the same as:
expect(actual).to match_array(expected_array)

Examples

expect([1, 2, 3]).to include(1)
expect([1, 2, 3]).to include(1, 2)
expect([1, 2, 3]).to start_with(1)
expect([1, 2, 3]).to start_with(1, 2)
expect([1, 2, 3]).to end_with(3)
expect([1, 2, 3]).to end_with(2, 3)
expect({:a => 'b'}).to include(:a => 'b')
expect("this string").to include("is str")
expect("this string").to start_with("this")
expect("this string").to end_with("ring")
expect([1, 2, 3]).to contain_exactly(2, 3, 1)
expect([1, 2, 3]).to match_array([3, 2, 1])

Compound Matcher Expressions

You can also create compound matcher expressions using and or or:

expect(alphabet).to start_with("a").and end_with("z")
expect(stoplight.color).to eq("red").or eq("green").or eq("yellow")

Composing Matchers

Many of the built-in matchers are designed to take matchers as arguments, to allow you to flexibly specify only the essential aspects of an object or data structure. In addition, all of the built-in matchers have one or more aliases that provide better phrasing for when they are used as arguments to another matcher.

Examples

expect { k += 1.05 }.to change { k }.by( a_value_within(0.1).of(1.0) )

expect { s = "barn" }.to change { s }
  .from( a_string_matching(/foo/) )
  .to( a_string_matching(/bar/) )

expect(["barn", 2.45]).to contain_exactly(
  a_value_within(0.1).of(2.5),
  a_string_starting_with("bar")
)

expect(["barn", "food", 2.45]).to end_with(
  a_string_matching("foo"),
  a_value > 2
)

expect(["barn", 2.45]).to include( a_string_starting_with("bar") )

expect(:a => "food", :b => "good").to include(:a => a_string_matching(/foo/))

hash = {
  :a => {
    :b => ["foo", 5],
    :c => { :d => 2.05 }
  }
}

expect(hash).to match(
  :a => {
    :b => a_collection_containing_exactly(
      a_string_starting_with("f"),
      an_instance_of(Fixnum)
    ),
    :c => { :d => (a_value < 3) }
  }
)

expect { |probe|
  [1, 2, 3].each(&probe)
}.to yield_successive_args( a_value < 2, 2, a_value > 2 )

File Uploads (Controller)

file = fixture_file_upload(Rails.root.join("spec", "fixtures", "test_upload.pdf"), "application/pdf")
post :add_message, { id: id, message: { body: "test body", attachment: file } }

Command Line

rspec --only-failures  # Runs just the failures.
rspec --format documentation # Formats the output in sentence form.