Asserts

The Test object has a collection of assertion methods, many of which are given several synonyms for compatibility with other test runners and the vagaries of human expectations and spelling. When a synonym is multi-word in camelCase the corresponding lower case and snake_case versions are also created as synonyms.

All assertion methods take optional message and extra arguments as the last two params. The message is the name of the test. The extra argument can contain any arbitrary data about the test, but the following fields are "special".

• todo Set to boolean true or a String to mark this as pending
• skip Set to boolean true or a String to mark this as skipped
• diagnostic Set to boolean true to show a yaml diagnostic block even if the test point passes. (Failing asserts always show yaml diagnostics.)
• at Generated by the framework. The location where the assertion was called. Do not set this field unless you know what you are doing.
• stack Generated by the framework. The stack trace to the point where the assertion was called. Do not set this field unless you know what you are doing.

Note: There's no requirement that you use tap's built-in assertions. You can also use any Error-throwing assertion library, including Node.js's built-in assert module. A throw fails a test, so not-throwing passes. That does, however, mean that you won't generate a test point in your output for each assertion run. You do you.

t.ok(obj, message, extra)

Verifies that the object is truthy.

Synonyms: t.true, t.assert

t.notOk(obj, message, extra)

Verifies that the object is not truthy.

Synonyms: t.false, t.assertNot

t.error(obj, message, extra)

If the object is an error, then the assertion fails.

Note: if an error is encountered unexpectedly, it's often better to simply throw it. The Test object will handle this as a failure.

Synonyms: t.ifErr, t.ifError

t.emits(eventEmitter, event, message, extra)

Verify that the event emitter emits the named event before the end of the test.

t.rejects(promise | fn, [expectedError], message, extra)

Verifies that the promise (or promise-returning function) rejects. If an expected error is provided, then also verify that the rejection matches the expected error.

Note: since promises always reject and resolve asynchronously, this assertion is implemented asynchronously. As such, it does not return a boolean to indicate its passing status. Instead, it returns a Promise that resolves when it is completed.

t.resolves(promise | fn, message, extra)

Verifies that the promise (or promise-returning function) resolves, making no expectation about the value that the promise resolves to.

Note: since promises always reject and resolve asynchronously, this assertion is implemented asynchronously. As such, it does not return a boolean to indicate its passing status. Instead, it returns a Promise that resolves when it is completed.

t.resolveMatch(promise | fn, wanted, message, extra)

Verifies that the promise (or promise-returning function) resolves, and furthermore that the value of the promise matches the wanted pattern using t.match.

Note: since promises always reject and resolve asynchronously, this assertion is implemented asynchronously. As such, it does not return a boolean to indicate its passing status. Instead, it returns a Promise that resolves when it is completed.

t.resolveMatchSnapshot(promise | fn, message, extra)

Verifies that the promise (or promise-returning function) resolves, and furthermore that the value of the promise matches the snapshot.

Note: since promises always reject and resolve asynchronously, this assertion is implemented asynchronously. As such, it does not return a boolean to indicate its passing status. Instead, it returns a Promise that resolves when it is completed.

t.throws(fn, [expectedError], message, extra)

Expect the function to throw an error. If an expected error is provided, then also verify that the thrown error matches the expected error.

If the expected error is an object, then it's matched against the thrown error using t.match(er, expectedError). If it's a function, then the error is asserted to be a member of that class.

If the function has a name, and the message is not provided, then the function name will be used as the message.

If the function is not provided, then this will be treated as a todo test.

Caveat: if you pass a extra object to t.throws, then you MUST also pass in an expected error, or else it will read the diag object as the expected error, and get upset when your thrown error doesn't match {skip:true} or whatever.

For example, this will not work as expected:

// anti-example, do not use!
t.throws(function() {throw new Error('x')}, { skip: true })

But this is fine:

// this example is ok to use.
// note the empty 'expected error' object.
// since it has no fields, it'll only verify that the thrown thing is
// an object, not the value of any properties
t.throws(function() {throw new Error('x')}, {}, { skip: true })

The expected error is tested against the throw error using t.match, so regular expressions and the like are fine. If the expected error is an Error object, then the stack field is ignored, since that will generally never match.

Synonyms: t.throw

t.doesNotThrow(fn, message, extra)

Verify that the provided function does not throw.

If the function has a name, and the message is not provided, then the function name will be used as the message.

If the function is not provided, then this will be treated as a todo test.

Note: if an error is encountered unexpectedly, it's often better to simply throw it. The Test object will handle this as a failure.

Synonyms: t.notThrow

t.expectUncaughtException(fn, [expectedError], message, extra)

Expect the function to throw an uncaught exception at some point in the future, before the test ends. If the test ends without having thrown the expected error, then the test fails.

This is useful for verifying that an error thrown in some part of your code will not be handled, which would normally result in a program crash, and verify behavior in those scenarios. If the error is thrown synchronously, or within a promise, then the t.throws() or t.rejects() methods are more appropriate.

If called multiple times, then the uncaught exception errors must be emitted in the order called.

Note: This method will not properly link a thrown error to the correct test object in some cases involving native modules on Node version 8, because the async_hooks module does not track the execution context ID across native boundaries.

t.equal(found, wanted, message, extra)

Verify that the object found is exactly the same (that is, ===) to the object that is wanted.

Synonyms: t.equals, t.isEqual, t.is, t.strictEqual, t.strictEquals, t.strictIs, t.isStrict, t.isStrictly

t.notEqual(found, notWanted, message, extra)

Inverse of t.equal().

Verify that the object found is not exactly the same (that is, !==) as the object that is wanted.

Synonyms: t.inequal, t.notEqual, t.notEquals, t.notStrictEqual, t.notStrictEquals, t.isNotEqual, t.isNot, t.doesNotEqual, t.isInequal

t.same(found, wanted, message, extra)

Verify that the found object is deeply equivalent to the wanted object. Use non-strict equality for scalars (ie, ==). See: tcompare

Synonyms: t.equivalent, t.looseEqual, t.looseEquals, t.deepEqual, t.deepEquals, t.isLoose, t.looseIs

t.notSame(found, notWanted, message, extra)

Inverse of t.same().

Verify that the found object is not deeply equivalent to the unwanted object. Uses non-strict inequality (ie, !=) for scalars.

Synonyms: t.inequivalent, t.looseInequal, t.notDeep, t.deepInequal, t.notLoose, t.looseNot

t.strictSame(found, wanted, message, extra)

Strict version of t.same().

Verify that the found object is deeply equivalent to the wanted object. Use strict equality for scalars (ie, ===).

Synonyms: t.strictEquivalent, t.strictDeepEqual, t.sameStrict, t.deepIs, t.isDeeply, t.isDeep, t.strictDeepEquals

t.strictNotSame(found, notWanted, message, extra)

Inverse of t.strictSame().

Verify that the found object is not deeply equivalent to the unwanted object. Use strict equality for scalars (ie, ===).

Synonyms: t.strictInequivalent, t.strictDeepInequal, t.notSameStrict, t.deepNot, t.notDeeply, t.strictDeepInequals, t.notStrictSame

t.match(found, pattern, message, extra)

Verify that the found object matches the pattern provided.

If pattern is a regular expression, and found is a string, then verify that the string matches the pattern.

If the pattern is a string, and found is a string, then verify that the pattern occurs within the string somewhere.

If pattern is an object, then verify that all of the (enumerable) fields in the pattern match the corresponding fields in the object using this same algorithm. For example, the pattern {x:/a[sdf]{3}/} would successfully match {x:'asdf',y:'z'}.

This is useful when you want to verify that an object has a certain set of required fields, but additional fields are ok.

See tcompare for the full details on how this works.

Synonyms: t.has, t.hasFields, t.matches, t.similar, t.like, t.isLike, t.includes, t.include, t.contains

t.notMatch(found, pattern, message, extra)

Inverse of match()

Verify that the found object does not match the pattern provided.

Synonyms: t.dissimilar, t.unsimilar, t.notSimilar, t.unlike, t.isUnlike, t.notLike, t.isNotLike, t.doesNotHave, t.isNotSimilar, t.isDissimilar

t.type(object, type, message, extra)

Verify that the object is of the type provided.

Type can be a string that matches the typeof value of the object, or the string name of any constructor in the object's prototype chain, or a constructor function in the object's prototype chain.

For example, all the following will pass:

t.type(new Date(), 'object')
t.type(new Date(), 'Date')
t.type(new Date(), Date)

Synonyms: t.isa, t.isA