|
| 1 | +The test demonstrates one of the temptations a developer meets when writing tests. |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +What we have here is actually 3 tests, but layed out as a single function with 3 asserts. |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +Sometimes it's easier to write this way, but if an error occurs, it's much less obvious what went wrong. |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +If an error happens in the middle of a complex execution flow, then we'll have to figure out the data at that point. We'll actually have to *debug the test*. |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +It would be much better to break the test into multiple `it` blocks with clearly written inputs and outputs. |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +Like this: |
| 12 | +```js |
| 13 | +describe("Raises x to power n", function() { |
| 14 | + it("5 in the power of 1 equals 5", function() { |
| 15 | + assert.equal(pow(5, 1), 5); |
| 16 | + }); |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | + it("5 in the power of 2 equals 25", function() { |
| 19 | + assert.equal(pow(5, 2), 25); |
| 20 | + }); |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | + it("5 in the power of 3 equals 125", function() { |
| 23 | + assert.equal(pow(5, 3), 125); |
| 24 | + }); |
| 25 | +}); |
| 26 | +``` |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +We replaced the single `it` with `describe` and a group of `it` blocks. Now if something fails we would see clearly what the data was. |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | +Also we can isolate a single test and run it in standalone mode by writing `it.only` instead of `it`: |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +```js |
| 34 | +describe("Raises x to power n", function() { |
| 35 | + it("5 in the power of 1 equals 5", function() { |
| 36 | + assert.equal(pow(5, 1), 5); |
| 37 | + }); |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +*!* |
| 40 | + // Mocha will run only this block |
| 41 | + it.only("5 in the power of 2 equals 25", function() { |
| 42 | + assert.equal(pow(5, 2), 25); |
| 43 | + }); |
| 44 | +*/!* |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | + it("5 in the power of 3 equals 125", function() { |
| 47 | + assert.equal(pow(5, 3), 125); |
| 48 | + }); |
| 49 | +}); |
| 50 | +``` |
0 commit comments