JUnit: Possible to 'expect' a wrapped exception?

Question

I know that one can define an \'expected\' exception in JUnit, doing:

@Test(expect=MyException.class)
public void someMethod() { ... }


        

Answer 1

As of JUnit 4.11 you can use the ExpectedException rule's expectCause() method:

import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.*;

// ...

@Rule
public ExpectedException expectedException = ExpectedException.none();

@Test
public void throwsNestedException() throws Exception {
    expectedException.expectCause(isA(SomeNestedException.class));

    throw new ParentException("foo", new SomeNestedException("bar"));
}

Answer 2

I wrote a little JUnit extension for that purpose. A static helper function takes a function body and an array of expected exceptions:

import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
import static org.junit.Assert.fail;

import java.util.Arrays;

public class AssertExt {
    public static interface Runnable {
        void run() throws Exception;
    }

    public static void assertExpectedExceptionCause( Runnable runnable, @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") Class[] expectedExceptions ) {
        boolean thrown = false;
        try {
            runnable.run();
        } catch( Throwable throwable ) {
            final Throwable cause = throwable.getCause();
            if( null != cause ) {
                assertTrue( Arrays.asList( expectedExceptions ).contains( cause.getClass() ) );
                thrown = true;
            }
        }
        if( !thrown ) {
            fail( "Expected exception not thrown or thrown exception had no cause!" );
        }
    }
}

You can now check for expected nested exceptions like so:

import static AssertExt.assertExpectedExceptionCause;

import org.junit.Test;

public class TestExample {
    @Test
    public void testExpectedExceptionCauses() {
        assertExpectedExceptionCause( new AssertExt.Runnable(){
            public void run() throws Exception {
                throw new Exception( new NullPointerException() );
            }
        }, new Class[]{ NullPointerException.class } );
    }
}

This saves you writing the same boiler plate code again and again.

Answer 3

You could always do it manually:

@Test
public void someMethod() {
    try{
        ... all your code
    } catch (Exception e){
        // check your nested clauses
        if(e.getCause() instanceof FooException){
            // pass
        } else {
            Assert.fail("unexpected exception");
        }
    }

Answer 4

The most concise syntax is provided by catch-exception:

import static com.googlecode.catchexception.CatchException.*;

catchException(myObj).doSomethingNasty();
assertTrue(caughtException().getCause() instanceof MyException);

Answer 5

You could wrap the testing code in a try / catch block, catch the thrown exception, check the internal cause, log / assert / whatever, and then rethrow the exception (if desired).

Answer 6

You could create a Matcher for exceptions. This works even when you are using another test runner like Arquillian's @RunWith(Arquillian.class) so you can't use the @RunWith(ExtendedTestRunner.class) approach suggested above.

Here's a simple example:

public class ExceptionMatcher extends BaseMatcher<Object> {
    private Class<? extends Throwable>[] classes;

    // @SafeVarargs // <-- Suppress warning in Java 7. This usage is safe.
    public ExceptionMatcher(Class<? extends Throwable>... classes) {
        this.classes = classes;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean matches(Object item) {
        for (Class<? extends Throwable> klass : classes) {
            if (! klass.isInstance(item)) {
                return false;
            }   

            item = ((Throwable) item).getCause();
        }   

        return true;
    }   

    @Override
    public void describeTo(Description descr) {
        descr.appendText("unexpected exception");
    }
}

Then use it with @Rule and ExpectedException like this:

@Rule
public ExpectedException thrown = ExpectedException.none();

@Test
public void testSomething() {
    thrown.expect(new ExceptionMatcher(IllegalArgumentException.class, IllegalStateException.class));

    throw new IllegalArgumentException("foo", new IllegalStateException("bar"));
}

Added by Craig Ringer in 2012 edit: An enhanced and more reliable version:

• Basic usage unchanged from above
• Can pass optional 1st argument boolean rethrow to throw unmatched exception. That preserves the stack trace of the nested exceptions for easier debugging.
• Uses Apache Commons Lang ExceptionUtils to handle cause loops and to handle non-standard exception nesting used by some common exception classes.
• Self-describe includes accepted exceptions
• Self-describe on failure includes a the cause stack of the exception encountered
• Handle Java 7 warning. Remove the @SaveVarargs on older versions.

Full code:

import org.apache.commons.lang3.exception.ExceptionUtils;
import org.hamcrest.BaseMatcher;
import org.hamcrest.Description;


public class ExceptionMatcher extends BaseMatcher<Object> {
    private Class<? extends Throwable>[] acceptedClasses;

    private Throwable[] nestedExceptions;
    private final boolean rethrow;

    @SafeVarargs
    public ExceptionMatcher(Class<? extends Throwable>... classes) {
        this(false, classes);
    }

    @SafeVarargs
    public ExceptionMatcher(boolean rethrow, Class<? extends Throwable>... classes) {
        this.rethrow = rethrow;
        this.acceptedClasses = classes;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean matches(Object item) {
        nestedExceptions = ExceptionUtils.getThrowables((Throwable)item);
        for (Class<? extends Throwable> acceptedClass : acceptedClasses) {
            for (Throwable nestedException : nestedExceptions) {
                if (acceptedClass.isInstance(nestedException)) {
                    return true;
                }
            }
        }
        if (rethrow) {
            throw new AssertionError(buildDescription(), (Throwable)item);
        }
        return false;
    }

    private String buildDescription() {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.append("Unexpected exception. Acceptable (possibly nested) exceptions are:");
        for (Class<? extends Throwable> klass : acceptedClasses) {
            sb.append("\n  ");
            sb.append(klass.toString());
        }
        if (nestedExceptions != null) {
            sb.append("\nNested exceptions found were:");
            for (Throwable nestedException : nestedExceptions) {
                sb.append("\n  ");
                sb.append(nestedException.getClass().toString());
            }
        }
        return sb.toString();
    }

    @Override
    public void describeTo(Description description) {
        description.appendText(buildDescription());
    }

}

Typical output:

java.lang.AssertionError:  Expected: Unexpected exception. Acceptable (possibly nested) exceptions are:
   class some.application.Exception
Nested exceptions found were:
   class javax.ejb.EJBTransactionRolledbackException
   class javax.persistence.NoResultException
     got: <javax.ejb.EJBTransactionRolledbackException: getSingleResult() did not retrieve any entities.>