How to test panics?

Question

I\'m currently pondering how to write tests that check if a given piece of code panicked? I know that Go uses recover to catch panics, but unlike say, Java code, you can\'t

Answer 1

When looping over multiple test cases I would go for something like this:

package main

import (
    "reflect"
    "testing"
)


func TestYourFunc(t *testing.T) {
    type args struct {
        arg1 int
        arg2 int
        arg3 int
    }
    tests := []struct {
        name      string
        args      args
        want      []int
        wantErr   bool
        wantPanic bool
    }{
        //TODO: write test cases
    }
    for _, tt := range tests {
        t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
            defer func() {
                r := recover()
                if (r != nil) != tt.wantPanic {
                    t.Errorf("SequenceInt() recover = %v, wantPanic = %v", r, tt.wantPanic)
                }
            }()
            got, err := YourFunc(tt.args.arg1, tt.args.arg2, tt.args.arg3)
            if (err != nil) != tt.wantErr {
                t.Errorf("YourFunc() error = %v, wantErr %v", err, tt.wantErr)
                return
            }
            if !reflect.DeepEqual(got, tt.want) {
                t.Errorf("YourFunc() = %v, want %v", got, tt.want)
            }
        })
    }
}

Go playground

Answer 2

When you need to check the content of the panic, you can typecast the recovered value:

func TestIsAheadComparedToPanicsWithDifferingStreams(t *testing.T) {
    defer func() {
        err := recover().(error)

        if err.Error() != "Cursor: cannot compare cursors from different streams" {
            t.Fatalf("Wrong panic message: %s", err.Error())
        }
    }()

    c1 := CursorFromserializedMust("/foo:0:0")
    c2 := CursorFromserializedMust("/bar:0:0")

    // must panic
    c1.IsAheadComparedTo(c2)
}

If the code you're testing does not panic OR panic with an error OR panic with the error message you expect it to, the test will fail (which is what you'd want).

Answer 3

Succinct Way

To me, the solution below is easy to read and shows a maintainer the natural code flow under test.

func TestPanic(t *testing.T) {
    // No need to check whether `recover()` is nil. Just turn off the panic.
    defer func() { recover() }()

    OtherFunctionThatPanics()

    // Never reaches here if `OtherFunctionThatPanics` panics.
    t.Errorf("did not panic")
}

---

For a more general solution, you can also do it like this:

func TestPanic(t *testing.T) {
    shouldPanic(t, OtherFunctionThatPanics)
}

func shouldPanic(t *testing.T, f func()) {
    defer func() { recover() }()
    f()
    t.Errorf("should have panicked")
}

Answer 4

You can test which function paniced by giving panic an input

package main

import "fmt"

func explode() {
    // Cause a panic.
    panic("WRONG")
}

func explode1() {
    // Cause a panic.
    panic("WRONG1")
}

func main() {
    // Handle errors in defer func with recover.
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r != nil {
            var ok bool
            err, ok := r.(error)
            if !ok {
                err = fmt.Errorf("pkg: %v", r)
                fmt.Println(err)
            }
        }

    }()
    // These causes an error. change between these
    explode()
    //explode1()

    fmt.Println("Everything fine")

}

http://play.golang.org/p/ORWBqmPSVA

Answer 5

In your case you can do:

func f(t *testing.T) {
    recovered := func() (r bool) {
        defer func() {
            if r := recover(); r != nil {
                r = true
            }
        }()
        OtherFunctionThatPanics()
        // NOT BE EXECUTED IF PANICS
        // ....
    }
    if ! recovered() {
        t.Errorf("The code did not panic")

        // EXECUTED IF PANICS
        // ....
    }
}

As a generic panic router function this will also work:

https://github.com/7d4b9/recover

package recover

func Recovered(IfPanic, Else func(), Then func(recover interface{})) (recoverElse interface{}) {
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r != nil {
            {
                // EXECUTED IF PANICS
                if Then != nil {
                    Then(r)
                }
            }
        }
    }()

    IfPanic()

    {
        // NOT BE EXECUTED IF PANICS
        if Else != nil {
            defer func() {
                recoverElse = recover()
            }()
            Else()
        }
    }
    return
}

var testError = errors.New("expected error")

func TestRecover(t *testing.T) {
    Recovered(
        func() {
            panic(testError)
        },
        func() {
            t.Errorf("The code did not panic")
        },
        func(r interface{}) {
            if err := r.(error); err != nil {
                assert.Error(t, testError, err)
                return
            }
            t.Errorf("The code did an unexpected panic")
        },
    )
}

Answer 6

If you use testify/assert, then it's a one-liner:

func TestOtherFunctionThatPanics(t *testing.T) {
  assert.Panics(t, OtherFunctionThatPanics, "The code did not panic")
}

Or, if your OtherFunctionThatPanics has a signature other than func():

func TestOtherFunctionThatPanics(t *testing.T) {
  assert.Panics(t, func() { OtherFunctionThatPanics(arg) }, "The code did not panic")
}

If you haven't tried testify yet, then also check out testify/mock. Super simple assertions and mocks.