Java – Verify object attribute value with mockito

javamockingmockito

I have a method call which I want to mock with mockito. To start with I have created and injected an instance of an object on which the method will be called. My aim is to verify one of the object in method call.

Is there a way that mockito allows you to assert or verify the object and it's attributes when the mock method is called?

example

Mockito.verify(mockedObject)
       .someMethodOnMockedObject(
              Mockito.<SomeObjectAsArgument>anyObject())

Instead of doing anyObject() i want to check that argument object contains some particular fields

Mockito.verify(mockedObject)
       .someMethodOnMockedObject(
              Mockito.<SomeObjectAsArgument>**compareWithThisObject()**)

Best Answer

New feature added to Mockito makes this even easier,

ArgumentCaptor<Person> argument = ArgumentCaptor.forClass(Person.class);
verify(mock).doSomething(argument.capture());
assertEquals("John", argument.getValue().getName());

Take a look at Mockito documentation

In case when there are more than one parameters, and capturing of only single param is desired, use other ArgumentMatchers to wrap the rest of the arguments:

verify(mock).doSomething(eq(someValue), eq(someOtherValue), argument.capture());
assertEquals("John", argument.getValue().getName());

Related Solutions

Java – Is Java “pass-by-reference” or “pass-by-value”

Java is always pass-by-value. Unfortunately, when we deal with objects we are really dealing with object-handles called references which are passed-by-value as well. This terminology and semantics easily confuse many beginners.

It goes like this:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Dog aDog = new Dog("Max");
    Dog oldDog = aDog;

    // we pass the object to foo
    foo(aDog);
    // aDog variable is still pointing to the "Max" dog when foo(...) returns
    aDog.getName().equals("Max"); // true
    aDog.getName().equals("Fifi"); // false
    aDog == oldDog; // true
}

public static void foo(Dog d) {
    d.getName().equals("Max"); // true
    // change d inside of foo() to point to a new Dog instance "Fifi"
    d = new Dog("Fifi");
    d.getName().equals("Fifi"); // true
}

In the example above aDog.getName() will still return "Max". The value aDog within main is not changed in the function foo with the Dog "Fifi" as the object reference is passed by value. If it were passed by reference, then the aDog.getName() in main would return "Fifi" after the call to foo.

Likewise:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Dog aDog = new Dog("Max");
    Dog oldDog = aDog;

    foo(aDog);
    // when foo(...) returns, the name of the dog has been changed to "Fifi"
    aDog.getName().equals("Fifi"); // true
    // but it is still the same dog:
    aDog == oldDog; // true
}

public static void foo(Dog d) {
    d.getName().equals("Max"); // true
    // this changes the name of d to be "Fifi"
    d.setName("Fifi");
}

In the above example, Fifi is the dog's name after call to foo(aDog) because the object's name was set inside of foo(...). Any operations that foo performs on d are such that, for all practical purposes, they are performed on aDog, but it is not possible to change the value of the variable aDog itself.

For more information on pass by reference and pass by value, consult the following SO answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/430958/6005228. This explains more thoroughly the semantics and history behind the two and also explains why Java and many other modern languages appear to do both in certain cases.

What’s the difference between faking, mocking, and stubbing

You can get some information :

From Martin Fowler about Mock and Stub

Fake objects actually have working implementations, but usually take some shortcut which makes them not suitable for production

Stubs provide canned answers to calls made during the test, usually not responding at all to anything outside what's programmed in for the test. Stubs may also record information about calls, such as an email gateway stub that remembers the messages it 'sent', or maybe only how many messages it 'sent'.

Mocks are what we are talking about here: objects pre-programmed with expectations which form a specification of the calls they are expected to receive.

From xunitpattern:

Fake: We acquire or build a very lightweight implementation of the same functionality as provided by a component that the SUT depends on and instruct the SUT to use it instead of the real.

Stub : This implementation is configured to respond to calls from the SUT with the values (or exceptions) that will exercise the Untested Code (see Production Bugs on page X) within the SUT. A key indication for using a Test Stub is having Untested Code caused by the inability to control the indirect inputs of the SUT

Mock Object that implements the same interface as an object on which the SUT (System Under Test) depends. We can use a Mock Object as an observation point when we need to do Behavior Verification to avoid having an Untested Requirement (see Production Bugs on page X) caused by an inability to observe side-effects of invoking methods on the SUT.

Personally

I try to simplify by using : Mock and Stub. I use Mock when it's an object that returns a value that is set to the tested class. I use Stub to mimic an Interface or Abstract class to be tested. In fact, it doesn't really matter what you call it, they are all classes that aren't used in production, and are used as utility classes for testing.