Rspec: testing the response of a model scope

Question

I'm writing a pretty straightforward test for a model scope:

describe "scope tests" do

  let(:account1) { create(:account, last_seen: Date.today)}
  let(:account2) { create(:account, last_seen: Date.today - 4.days)}
  let(:account3) { create(:account, last_seen: Date.today - 10.days)}
  let(:d) { Date.today}
  let(:seen_between) { Account.seen_between(d - 14.days, d - 2.days) }

  it "response to seen_between" do
    expect(seen_between).to eq([account3, account2])
    expect(seen_between).to_not include(account1)
  end
end

But I'm getting some very verbose error:

Failure/Error: expect(Account.all).to eq([account3, account2])

       expected: [#<Account id: 2, date_of_birth: nil, description: nil, active: true, created_at: "2018-05-10 12:05:4..._lead_id: nil, account_category_id: nil, psychiatrisch: nil, oggz: nil, problem: nil, actions: nil>]
            got: #<ActiveRecord::Relation [#<Account id: 3, date_of_birth: nil, description: nil, active: true, create...lead_id: nil, account_category_id: nil, psychiatrisch: nil, oggz: nil, problem: nil, actions: nil>]>

Also, when I change the order of the assertion to [account2, account3] it still doesn't work. What is the correct way to make this test past (assuming that the scope does indeed returns the correct records, which it already does)

I also tried using inlcudes(), which of course works, but doesn't check for the correct order of records.

Thanks

Pavel Mikhailyuk · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-10T15:02:32.727

6

Try to use let!, #to_a and match_array:

let(:today) { Date.today }

let!(:account1) { create(:account, last_seen: today) }
let!(:account2) { create(:account, last_seen: today - 4.days) }
let!(:account3) { create(:account, last_seen: today - 10.days) }

subject { Account.seen_between(today - 14.days, today - 2.days).to_a }

it { is_expected.to match_array [account2, account3] }

P.S. With match_array you need no extra expect(...).not_to include.

edited May 10 '18 at 15:02

answered May 10 '18 at 12:43

Pavel Mikhailyuk

2,757
9
17

What's the difference between `let` and `let!`? – bo-oz May 10 '18 at 13:56
1

`Let` is "lazy" and invoked when you first call it. So, your test may fail because you call it too late. `Let!` is not. – Pavel Mikhailyuk May 10 '18 at 14:36
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10173097/rails-rspec-difference-between-let-and-let – Pavel Mikhailyuk May 10 '18 at 14:37
If you care about order then your scope should be tested with `eq`, not `match_array`. And if you define `Date.today` as `d` why don't you use it for accounts creation? :) – Vasilisa May 10 '18 at 14:47
@Vasilisa I don't care about order and just copied `let`s from the Question. But using one `Date.today` is a good and right notice! Updated my answer, thanks! – Pavel Mikhailyuk May 10 '18 at 15:04
@PavelMikhailyuk, sorry, my comment is related to the question author, I forgot to mention him – Vasilisa May 10 '18 at 15:07
@Vasilisa NP, You helped to make answer better! :) – Pavel Mikhailyuk May 10 '18 at 15:42
Good point about the date, was first trying to make the test pass. :) – bo-oz May 11 '18 at 08:53

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 10 '18 at 12:40

You're getting an active record relation but comparing it to an array.

Just convert the active record relation into an array.

  it "response to seen_between" do
    expect(seen_between.to_a).to eq([account3, account2])
    expect(seen_between.to_a).to_not include(account1)
  end

If you don't care about record order...

  it "response to seen_between" do
    expect(seen_between.to_a).to match_array([account3, account2])
    expect(seen_between.to_a).to_not include(account1)
  end

Rspec: testing the response of a model scope

2 Answers2