Readable exception information when testing DateTime objects in PHPUnit

Question

When testing DateTime objects in PHPUnit (3.7.22), I am making the assertion like this:

$this->assertEquals(date_create('2014-01-01'), $myobject->getDate());

Works nicely till you get an exception, and the exception in not clear enough (like for primitives where is clearly states for example that 1 does not equal the excepted 2).

PHPUnit_Framework_ExpectationFailedException : Failed asserting that two objects are equal.

I could pass the $message parameter to the assertEquals method, with a string containing the object value, but I feel it could go easier.

Any ideas?

STLMikey · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-19 17:21:12Z

1

You could do something like

$expected_date = new DateTime('2014-01-01');
$this->assertEquals($expected_date->format('Y-m-d'), $myobject->getDate()->format('Y-m-d');

This would make you error message say something like "failed asserting that '2014-02-03 matches expected 2014-01-01'

answered Mar 19, 2014 at 17:21

STLMikey

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Darren Cook · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-20 04:50:29Z

1

I had a poke around the phpUnit source, and don't see any hook to allow better display. What I usually do is what you already mention in your question:

$this->assertEquals(date_create('2014-01-01'), $myobject->getDate(), print_r($myobject,true) );

OR:

$this->assertEquals(date_create('2014-01-01'), $myobject->getDate(), print_r($myobject->getDate(),true) );

depending on which is more useful, case-by-case.

I do this anyway, because often I want to include other helpful data in the message, perhaps some previous calculations, to give it context. I.e. to know why a test is failing I often need to know more than just the two objects that should've been equal.

answered Mar 20, 2014 at 4:50

Darren Cook

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