Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@kyuden
Created February 8, 2014 20:27
Show Gist options
  • Save kyuden/8889700 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save kyuden/8889700 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
describe vs. context in rspec
describe vs. context in rspec
http://lmws.net/describe-vs-context-in-rspec
In Rspec world, you often see people using both “describe” blocks and “context” blocks together, like this
describe "launch the rocket" do
context "all ready" do
end
context "not ready" do
end
end
So what’s the difference between “describe” and “context” really?
According to the rspec source code, “context” is just a alias method of “describe”, meaning that there is no functional difference between these two methods. However, there is a contextual difference that’ll help to make your tests more understandable by using both of them.
The purpose of “describe” is to wrap a set of tests against one functionality while “context” is to wrap a set of tests against one functionality under the same state. Here’s an example
describe "launch the rocket" do
before(:each) do
#prepare a rocket for all of the tests
@rocket = Rocket.new
end
context "all ready" do
before(:each) do
#under the state of ready
@rocket.ready = true
end
it "launch the rocket" do
@rocket.launch().should be_true
end
end
context "not ready" do
before(:each) do
#under the state of NOT ready
@rocket.ready = false
end
it "does not launch the rocket" do
@rocket.launch().should be_false
end
end
end
This code is more readable than wrapping all the stuffs with “describe” blocks. Because when you read the tests under “context”, you know they are all testing the same thing the “describe” talk about. And you know a “context” is to setup the state of your object, in this case @rocket.ready which will effects the behavior of @rocket.launch() that gives you a conclusion, right away, without scanning the code back and forth.
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment