How to assert output with nosetest/unittest in python?

Question

I\'m writing tests for a function like next one:

def foo():
    print \'hello world!\'

So when I want to test this function the code will b

Answer 1

I use this context manager to capture output. It ultimately uses the same technique as some of the other answers by temporarily replacing sys.stdout. I prefer the context manager because it wraps all the bookkeeping into a single function, so I don't have to re-write any try-finally code, and I don't have to write setup and teardown functions just for this.

import sys
from contextlib import contextmanager
from StringIO import StringIO

@contextmanager
def captured_output():
    new_out, new_err = StringIO(), StringIO()
    old_out, old_err = sys.stdout, sys.stderr
    try:
        sys.stdout, sys.stderr = new_out, new_err
        yield sys.stdout, sys.stderr
    finally:
        sys.stdout, sys.stderr = old_out, old_err

Use it like this:

with captured_output() as (out, err):
    foo()
# This can go inside or outside the `with` block
output = out.getvalue().strip()
self.assertEqual(output, 'hello world!')

Furthermore, since the original output state is restored upon exiting the with block, we can set up a second capture block in the same function as the first one, which isn't possible using setup and teardown functions, and gets wordy when writing try-finally blocks manually. That ability came in handy when the goal of a test was to compare the results of two functions relative to each other rather than to some precomputed value.

Answer 2

Or consider using pytest, it has built-in support for asserting stdout and stderr. See docs

def test_myoutput(capsys): # or use "capfd" for fd-level
    print("hello")
    captured = capsys.readouterr()
    assert captured.out == "hello\n"
    print("next")
    captured = capsys.readouterr()
    assert captured.out == "next\n"

Answer 3

Based on Rob Kennedy's answer, I wrote a class-based version of the context manager to buffer the output.

Usage is like:

with OutputBuffer() as bf:
    print('hello world')
assert bf.out == 'hello world\n'

Here's the implementation:

from io import StringIO
import sys


class OutputBuffer(object):

    def __init__(self):
        self.stdout = StringIO()
        self.stderr = StringIO()

    def __enter__(self):
        self.original_stdout, self.original_stderr = sys.stdout, sys.stderr
        sys.stdout, sys.stderr = self.stdout, self.stderr
        return self

    def __exit__(self, exception_type, exception, traceback):
        sys.stdout, sys.stderr = self.original_stdout, self.original_stderr

    @property
    def out(self):
        return self.stdout.getvalue()

    @property
    def err(self):
        return self.stderr.getvalue()

Answer 4

In python 3.5 you can use contextlib.redirect_stdout() and StringIO(). Here's the modification to your code

import contextlib
from io import StringIO
from foomodule import foo

def test_foo():
    temp_stdout = StringIO()
    with contextlib.redirect_stdout(temp_stdout):
        foo()
    output = temp_stdout.getvalue().strip()
    assert output == 'hello world!'

Answer 5

Since version 2.7, you do not need anymore to reassign sys.stdout, this is provided through buffer flag. Moreover, it is the default behavior of nosetest.

Here is a sample failing in non buffered context:

import sys
import unittest

def foo():
    print 'hello world!'

class Case(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_foo(self):
        foo()
        if not hasattr(sys.stdout, "getvalue"):
            self.fail("need to run in buffered mode")
        output = sys.stdout.getvalue().strip() # because stdout is an StringIO instance
        self.assertEquals(output,'hello world!')

You can set buffer through unit2 command line flag -b, --buffer or in unittest.main options. The opposite is achieved through nosetest flag --nocapture.

if __name__=="__main__":   
    assert not hasattr(sys.stdout, "getvalue")
    unittest.main(module=__name__, buffer=True, exit=False)
    #.
    #----------------------------------------------------------------------
    #Ran 1 test in 0.000s
    #
    #OK
    assert not hasattr(sys.stdout, "getvalue")

    unittest.main(module=__name__, buffer=False)
    #hello world!
    #F
    #======================================================================
    #FAIL: test_foo (__main__.Case)
    #----------------------------------------------------------------------
    #Traceback (most recent call last):
    #  File "test_stdout.py", line 15, in test_foo
    #    self.fail("need to run in buffered mode")
    #AssertionError: need to run in buffered mode
    #
    #----------------------------------------------------------------------
    #Ran 1 test in 0.002s
    #
    #FAILED (failures=1)

Answer 6

I'm only just learning Python and found myself struggling with a similar problem to the one above with unit tests for methods with output. My passing unit test for foo module above has ended up looking like this:

import sys
import unittest
from foo import foo
from StringIO import StringIO

class FooTest (unittest.TestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        self.held, sys.stdout = sys.stdout, StringIO()

    def test_foo(self):
        foo()
        self.assertEqual(sys.stdout.getvalue(),'hello world!\n')