spock.util.matcher
Class HamcrestSupport

java.lang.Object
  spock.util.matcher.HamcrestSupport

public class HamcrestSupport
extends Object

Constructor Summary

HamcrestSupport()

Method Summary

static <T> void

that(T value, Matcher<? super T> matcher) Used to match a value against a (Hamcrest) matcher.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

HamcrestSupport

public HamcrestSupport()

Method Detail

that

public static <T> void that(T value,
                            Matcher<? super T> matcher)

Used to match a value against a (Hamcrest) matcher. Only allowed in places where a condition is expected (expect-block, then-block, after an 'assert' keyword).

Basic example:

 import static spock.util.matcher.HamcrestSupport.that
 import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.equalTo // ships with JUnit

 def foo = 42

 expect:
 that(foo, equalTo(42))
 

Note that Spock supports an even simpler syntax for applying matchers:

 expect:
 foo equalTo(42)
 

However, the simpler syntax cannot be used in explicit conditions (i.e. after the 'assert' keyword), and may not be as IDE-friendly. That's why this method is provided as an alternative.

When would I use matchers?

Due to Spock's good diagnostic messages and Groovy's expressivity, matchers are less often needed than when, say, writing JUnit tests in Java. However, they come in handy when more complex conditions are required (and possibly repeated throughout a project). In such cases, Spock's Hamcrest integration provides the best of two worlds: the diagnostic messages known from Spock's conditions, and the custom failure messages of Hamcrest matchers.

Third-party matchers

The matchers that ship with JUnit aren't very useful per se. Instead, you will want to use matchers from Hamcrest (http://code.google.com/p/hamcrest/) or other libraries. Both Hamcrest 1.1 and 1.2 are supported. You can also write your own matchers, building up a matcher library that's specific to the needs of your project.

Type Parameters:

T - the value's type

Parameters:

value - an actual value

matcher - a matcher describing the expected value(s)