<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>Further Examples — Mock 1.0.0 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="_static/nature.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '', VERSION: '1.0.0', COLLAPSE_INDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="_static/doctools.js"></script> <link rel="top" title="Mock 1.0.0 documentation" href="index.html" /> <link rel="next" title="Mock Library Comparison" href="compare.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="Getting Started with Mock" href="getting-started.html" /> </head> <body> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="compare.html" title="Mock Library Comparison" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="getting-started.html" title="Getting Started with Mock" accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li> <li><a href="index.html">Mock 1.0.0 documentation</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="further-examples"> <span id="id1"></span><h1>Further Examples<a class="headerlink" href="#further-examples" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p>For comprehensive examples, see the unit tests included in the full source distribution.</p> <p>Here are some more examples for some slightly more advanced scenarios than in the <a class="reference internal" href="getting-started.html#getting-started"><em>getting started</em></a> guide.</p> <div class="section" id="mocking-chained-calls"> <h2>Mocking chained calls<a class="headerlink" href="#mocking-chained-calls" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>Mocking chained calls is actually straightforward with mock once you understand the <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.return_value" title="mock.Mock.return_value"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">return_value</span></tt></a> attribute. When a mock is called for the first time, or you fetch its <cite>return_value</cite> before it has been called, a new <cite>Mock</cite> is created.</p> <p>This means that you can see how the object returned from a call to a mocked object has been used by interrogating the <cite>return_value</cite> mock:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">b</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="go"><Mock name='mock().foo()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">return_value</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">b</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>From here it is a simple step to configure and then make assertions about chained calls. Of course another alternative is writing your code in a more testable way in the first place...</p> <p>So, suppose we have some code that looks a little bit like this:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Something</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">backend</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">BackendProvider</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">method</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">response</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">backend</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_endpoint</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foobar'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">create_call</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'spam'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'eggs'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">start_call</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="c"># more code</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Assuming that <cite>BackendProvider</cite> is already well tested, how do we test <cite>method()</cite>? Specifically, we want to test that the code section <cite># more code</cite> uses the response object in the correct way.</p> <p>As this chain of calls is made from an instance attribute we can monkey patch the <cite>backend</cite> attribute on a <cite>Something</cite> instance. In this particular case we are only interested in the return value from the final call to <cite>start_call</cite> so we don’t have much configuration to do. Let’s assume the object it returns is ‘file-like’, so we’ll ensure that our response object uses the builtin <cite>file</cite> as its <cite>spec</cite>.</p> <p>To do this we create a mock instance as our mock backend and create a mock response object for it. To set the response as the return value for that final <cite>start_call</cite> we could do this:</p> <blockquote> <div><cite>mock_backend.get_endpoint.return_value.create_call.return_value.start_call.return_value = mock_response</cite>.</div></blockquote> <p>We can do that in a slightly nicer way using the <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.configure_mock" title="mock.Mock.configure_mock"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">configure_mock()</span></tt></a> method to directly set the return value for us:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">something</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Something</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_response</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">spec</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">file</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_backend</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">'get_endpoint.return_value.create_call.return_value.start_call.return_value'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">mock_response</span><span class="p">}</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_backend</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">configure_mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">**</span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>With these we monkey patch the “mock backend” in place and can make the real call:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">something</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">backend</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mock_backend</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">something</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">method</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Using <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.mock_calls" title="mock.Mock.mock_calls"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">mock_calls</span></tt></a> we can check the chained call with a single assert. A chained call is several calls in one line of code, so there will be several entries in <cite>mock_calls</cite>. We can use <a class="reference internal" href="helpers.html#mock.call.call_list" title="mock.call.call_list"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">call.call_list()</span></tt></a> to create this list of calls for us:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">chained</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">call</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_endpoint</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foobar'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">create_call</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'spam'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'eggs'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">start_call</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">call_list</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">chained</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">call_list</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mock_backend</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mock_calls</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="n">call_list</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <div class="section" id="partial-mocking"> <h2>Partial mocking<a class="headerlink" href="#partial-mocking" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>In some tests I wanted to mock out a call to <a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html#datetime.date.today">datetime.date.today()</a> to return a known date, but I didn’t want to prevent the code under test from creating new date objects. Unfortunately <cite>datetime.date</cite> is written in C, and so I couldn’t just monkey-patch out the static <cite>date.today</cite> method.</p> <p>I found a simple way of doing this that involved effectively wrapping the date class with a mock, but passing through calls to the constructor to the real class (and returning real instances).</p> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="patch.html#mock.patch" title="mock.patch"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">patch</span> <span class="pre">decorator</span></tt></a> is used here to mock out the <cite>date</cite> class in the module under test. The <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">side_effect</span></tt> attribute on the mock date class is then set to a lambda function that returns a real date. When the mock date class is called a real date will be constructed and returned by <cite>side_effect</cite>.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">datetime</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">date</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.date'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">mock_date</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mock_date</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">today</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">return_value</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">date</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2010</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">8</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mock_date</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">side_effect</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">lambda</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kw</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">date</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kw</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">date</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">today</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="n">date</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2010</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">8</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">date</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2009</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">8</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="n">date</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2009</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">8</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Note that we don’t patch <cite>datetime.date</cite> globally, we patch <cite>date</cite> in the module that <em>uses</em> it. See <a class="reference internal" href="patch.html#where-to-patch"><em>where to patch</em></a>.</p> <p>When <cite>date.today()</cite> is called a known date is returned, but calls to the <cite>date(...)</cite> constructor still return normal dates. Without this you can find yourself having to calculate an expected result using exactly the same algorithm as the code under test, which is a classic testing anti-pattern.</p> <p>Calls to the date constructor are recorded in the <cite>mock_date</cite> attributes (<cite>call_count</cite> and friends) which may also be useful for your tests.</p> <p>An alternative way of dealing with mocking dates, or other builtin classes, is discussed in <a class="reference external" href="http://williamjohnbert.com/2011/07/how-to-unit-testing-in-django-with-mocking-and-patching/">this blog entry</a>.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="mocking-a-generator-method"> <h2>Mocking a Generator Method<a class="headerlink" href="#mocking-a-generator-method" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>A Python generator is a function or method that uses the <a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/reference/simple_stmts.html#the-yield-statement">yield statement</a> to return a series of values when iterated over <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id3" id="id2">[1]</a>.</p> <p>A generator method / function is called to return the generator object. It is the generator object that is then iterated over. The protocol method for iteration is <a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#container.__iter__">__iter__</a>, so we can mock this using a <cite>MagicMock</cite>.</p> <p>Here’s an example class with an “iter” method implemented as a generator:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">iter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">i</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">]:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">yield</span> <span class="n">i</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Foo</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">iter</span><span class="p">())</span> <span class="go">[1, 2, 3]</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>How would we mock this class, and in particular its “iter” method?</p> <p>To configure the values returned from the iteration (implicit in the call to <cite>list</cite>), we need to configure the object returned by the call to <cite>foo.iter()</cite>.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">iter</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">return_value</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">iter</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">])</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">iter</span><span class="p">())</span> <span class="go">[1, 2, 3]</span> </pre></div> </div> <table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id3" rules="none"> <colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup> <tbody valign="top"> <tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id2">[1]</a></td><td>There are also generator expressions and more <a class="reference external" href="http://www.dabeaz.com/coroutines/index.html">advanced uses</a> of generators, but we aren’t concerned about them here. A very good introduction to generators and how powerful they are is: <a class="reference external" href="http://www.dabeaz.com/generators/">Generator Tricks for Systems Programmers</a>.</td></tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div class="section" id="applying-the-same-patch-to-every-test-method"> <h2>Applying the same patch to every test method<a class="headerlink" href="#applying-the-same-patch-to-every-test-method" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>If you want several patches in place for multiple test methods the obvious way is to apply the patch decorators to every method. This can feel like unnecessary repetition. For Python 2.6 or more recent you can use <cite>patch</cite> (in all its various forms) as a class decorator. This applies the patches to all test methods on the class. A test method is identified by methods whose names start with <cite>test</cite>:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nd">@patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.SomeClass'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">TestCase</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">test_one</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">MockSomeClass</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assertTrue</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">SomeClass</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">MockSomeClass</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">test_two</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">MockSomeClass</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assertTrue</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">SomeClass</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">MockSomeClass</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">not_a_test</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="s">'something'</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'test_one'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">test_one</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'test_two'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">test_two</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'test_two'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">not_a_test</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go">'something'</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>An alternative way of managing patches is to use the <a class="reference internal" href="patch.html#start-and-stop"><em>patch methods: start and stop</em></a>. These allow you to move the patching into your <cite>setUp</cite> and <cite>tearDown</cite> methods.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">TestCase</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">setUp</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">patcher</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.foo'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mock_foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">patcher</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">start</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">test_foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assertTrue</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">tearDown</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">patcher</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">stop</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'test_foo'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">run</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>If you use this technique you must ensure that the patching is “undone” by calling <cite>stop</cite>. This can be fiddlier than you might think, because if an exception is raised in the setUp then tearDown is not called. <a class="reference external" href="http://pypi.python.org/pypi/unittest2">unittest2</a> cleanup functions make this simpler:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">TestCase</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">setUp</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">patcher</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.foo'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">addCleanup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">patcher</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">stop</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mock_foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">patcher</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">start</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">test_foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assertTrue</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'test_foo'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">run</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <div class="section" id="mocking-unbound-methods"> <h2>Mocking Unbound Methods<a class="headerlink" href="#mocking-unbound-methods" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>Whilst writing tests today I needed to patch an <em>unbound method</em> (patching the method on the class rather than on the instance). I needed self to be passed in as the first argument because I want to make asserts about which objects were calling this particular method. The issue is that you can’t patch with a mock for this, because if you replace an unbound method with a mock it doesn’t become a bound method when fetched from the instance, and so it doesn’t get self passed in. The workaround is to patch the unbound method with a real function instead. The <a class="reference internal" href="patch.html#mock.patch" title="mock.patch"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">patch()</span></tt></a> decorator makes it so simple to patch out methods with a mock that having to create a real function becomes a nuisance.</p> <p>If you pass <cite>autospec=True</cite> to patch then it does the patching with a <em>real</em> function object. This function object has the same signature as the one it is replacing, but delegates to a mock under the hood. You still get your mock auto-created in exactly the same way as before. What it means though, is that if you use it to patch out an unbound method on a class the mocked function will be turned into a bound method if it is fetched from an instance. It will have <cite>self</cite> passed in as the first argument, which is exactly what I wanted:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">pass</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">object</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Foo</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">autospec</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">return_value</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'foo'</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Foo</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="go">'foo'</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_once_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>If we don’t use <cite>autospec=True</cite> then the unbound method is patched out with a Mock instance instead, and isn’t called with <cite>self</cite>.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="checking-multiple-calls-with-mock"> <h2>Checking multiple calls with mock<a class="headerlink" href="#checking-multiple-calls-with-mock" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>mock has a nice API for making assertions about how your mock objects are used.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo_bar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">return_value</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">None</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo_bar</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'baz'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">spam</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'eggs'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo_bar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'baz'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">spam</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'eggs'</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>If your mock is only being called once you can use the <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">assert_called_once_with()</span></tt> method that also asserts that the <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">call_count</span></tt> is one.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo_bar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_once_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'baz'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">spam</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'eggs'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo_bar</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo_bar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_once_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'baz'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">spam</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'eggs'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">AssertionError</span>: <span class="n">Expected to be called once. Called 2 times.</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Both <cite>assert_called_with</cite> and <cite>assert_called_once_with</cite> make assertions about the <em>most recent</em> call. If your mock is going to be called several times, and you want to make assertions about <em>all</em> those calls you can use <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.call_args_list" title="mock.Mock.call_args_list"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">call_args_list</span></tt></a>:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">return_value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">None</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">call_args_list</span> <span class="go">[call(1, 2, 3), call(4, 5, 6), call()]</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="helpers.html#mock.call" title="mock.call"><tt class="xref py py-data docutils literal"><span class="pre">call</span></tt></a> helper makes it easy to make assertions about these calls. You can build up a list of expected calls and compare it to <cite>call_args_list</cite>. This looks remarkably similar to the repr of the <cite>call_args_list</cite>:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">expected</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">call</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">call</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">call</span><span class="p">()]</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">call_args_list</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="n">expected</span> <span class="go">True</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <div class="section" id="coping-with-mutable-arguments"> <h2>Coping with mutable arguments<a class="headerlink" href="#coping-with-mutable-arguments" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>Another situation is rare, but can bite you, is when your mock is called with mutable arguments. <cite>call_args</cite> and <cite>call_args_list</cite> store <em>references</em> to the arguments. If the arguments are mutated by the code under test then you can no longer make assertions about what the values were when the mock was called.</p> <p>Here’s some example code that shows the problem. Imagine the following functions defined in ‘mymodule’:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">frob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">val</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="k">pass</span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">grob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">val</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="s">"First frob and then clear val"</span> <span class="n">frob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">val</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="n">val</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">clear</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>When we try to test that <cite>grob</cite> calls <cite>frob</cite> with the correct argument look what happens:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.frob'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">mock_frob</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">val</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">])</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">grob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">val</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">val</span> <span class="go">set([])</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_frob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">]))</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">AssertionError: Expected</span>: <span class="n">((set([6]),), {})</span> <span class="go">Called with: ((set([]),), {})</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>One possibility would be for mock to copy the arguments you pass in. This could then cause problems if you do assertions that rely on object identity for equality.</p> <p>Here’s one solution that uses the <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">side_effect</span></tt> functionality. If you provide a <cite>side_effect</cite> function for a mock then <cite>side_effect</cite> will be called with the same args as the mock. This gives us an opportunity to copy the arguments and store them for later assertions. In this example I’m using <em>another</em> mock to store the arguments so that I can use the mock methods for doing the assertion. Again a helper function sets this up for me.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">copy</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">deepcopy</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">mock</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">DEFAULT</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">copy_call_args</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">new_mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">side_effect</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">deepcopy</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">kwargs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">deepcopy</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">new_mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">DEFAULT</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">side_effect</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">side_effect</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">new_mock</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.frob'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">mock_frob</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">new_mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">copy_call_args</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mock_frob</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">val</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">])</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">grob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">val</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">new_mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">]))</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">new_mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">call_args</span> <span class="go">call(set([6]))</span> </pre></div> </div> <p><cite>copy_call_args</cite> is called with the mock that will be called. It returns a new mock that we do the assertion on. The <cite>side_effect</cite> function makes a copy of the args and calls our <cite>new_mock</cite> with the copy.</p> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="first admonition-title">Note</p> <p>If your mock is only going to be used once there is an easier way of checking arguments at the point they are called. You can simply do the checking inside a <cite>side_effect</cite> function.</p> <div class="last highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">side_effect</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">arg</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">arg</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">])</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">side_effect</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">side_effect</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">]))</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">())</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">AssertionError</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <p>An alternative approach is to create a subclass of <cite>Mock</cite> or <cite>MagicMock</cite> that copies (using <a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/library/copy.html#copy.deepcopy">copy.deepcopy</a>) the arguments. Here’s an example implementation:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">copy</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">deepcopy</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">CopyingMock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__call__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">deepcopy</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">kwargs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">deepcopy</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="nb">super</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">CopyingMock</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__call__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">c</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">CopyingMock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">return_value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">None</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">arg</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">c</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">arg</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">arg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">c</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">set</span><span class="p">())</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">c</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">arg</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">AssertionError: Expected call</span>: <span class="n">mock(set([1]))</span> <span class="go">Actual call: mock(set([]))</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">c</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="go"><CopyingMock name='mock.foo' id='...'></span> </pre></div> </div> <p>When you subclass <cite>Mock</cite> or <cite>MagicMock</cite> all dynamically created attributes, and the <cite>return_value</cite> will use your subclass automatically. That means all children of a <cite>CopyingMock</cite> will also have the type <cite>CopyingMock</cite>.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="raising-exceptions-on-attribute-access"> <h2>Raising exceptions on attribute access<a class="headerlink" href="#raising-exceptions-on-attribute-access" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>You can use <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.PropertyMock" title="mock.PropertyMock"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">PropertyMock</span></tt></a> to mimic the behaviour of properties. This includes raising exceptions when an attribute is accessed.</p> <p>Here’s an example raising a <cite>ValueError</cite> when the ‘foo’ attribute is accessed:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><pre>>>> m = MagicMock() >>> p = PropertyMock(side_effect=ValueError) >>> type(m).foo = p >>> m.foo Traceback (most recent call last): .... ValueError</pre> </div> <p>Because every mock object has its own type, a new subclass of whichever mock class you’re using, all mock objects are isolated from each other. You can safely attach properties (or other descriptors or whatever you want in fact) to <cite>type(mock)</cite> without affecting other mock objects.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="multiple-calls-with-different-effects"> <h2>Multiple calls with different effects<a class="headerlink" href="#multiple-calls-with-different-effects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="first admonition-title">Note</p> <p class="last">In mock 1.0 the handling of iterable <cite>side_effect</cite> was changed. Any exceptions in the iterable will be raised instead of returned.</p> </div> <p>Handling code that needs to behave differently on subsequent calls during the test can be tricky. For example you may have a function that needs to raise an exception the first time it is called but returns a response on the second call (testing retry behaviour).</p> <p>One approach is to use a <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">side_effect</span></tt> function that replaces itself. The first time it is called the <cite>side_effect</cite> sets a new <cite>side_effect</cite> that will be used for the second call. It then raises an exception:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">side_effect</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">second_call</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="s">'response'</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">side_effect</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">second_call</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'boom'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">side_effect</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">side_effect</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'first'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">Exception</span>: <span class="n">boom</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'second'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="go">'response'</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'second'</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Another perfectly valid way would be to pop return values from a list. If the return value is an exception, raise it instead of returning it:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">returns</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'boom'</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="s">'response'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">side_effect</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">result</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">returns</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">pop</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="nb">isinstance</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">result</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">result</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">result</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">side_effect</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">side_effect</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'first'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">Exception</span>: <span class="n">boom</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'second'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="go">'response'</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'second'</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Which approach you prefer is a matter of taste. The first approach is actually a line shorter but maybe the second approach is more readable.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="nesting-patches"> <h2>Nesting Patches<a class="headerlink" href="#nesting-patches" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>Using patch as a context manager is nice, but if you do multiple patches you can end up with nested with statements indenting further and further to the right:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">TestCase</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">test_foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.Foo'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.Bar'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">mock_bar</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.Spam'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">mock_spam</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Foo</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">mock_foo</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Bar</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">mock_bar</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Spam</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">mock_spam</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">original</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Foo</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'test_foo'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">test_foo</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Foo</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">original</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>With <a class="reference external" href="http://pypi.python.org/pypi/unittest2">unittest2</a> <cite>cleanup</cite> functions and the <a class="reference internal" href="patch.html#start-and-stop"><em>patch methods: start and stop</em></a> we can achieve the same effect without the nested indentation. A simple helper method, <cite>create_patch</cite>, puts the patch in place and returns the created mock for us:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">TestCase</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">create_patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">name</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">patcher</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">thing</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">patcher</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">start</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">addCleanup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">patcher</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">stop</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">thing</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">test_foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mock_foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">create_patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.Foo'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mock_bar</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">create_patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.Bar'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">mock_spam</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">create_patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.Spam'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Foo</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">mock_foo</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Bar</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">mock_bar</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Spam</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">mock_spam</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">original</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Foo</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">MyTest</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'test_foo'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">run</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">mymodule</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Foo</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">original</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <div class="section" id="mocking-a-dictionary-with-magicmock"> <h2>Mocking a dictionary with MagicMock<a class="headerlink" href="#mocking-a-dictionary-with-magicmock" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>You may want to mock a dictionary, or other container object, recording all access to it whilst having it still behave like a dictionary.</p> <p>We can do this with <a class="reference internal" href="magicmock.html#mock.MagicMock" title="mock.MagicMock"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MagicMock</span></tt></a>, which will behave like a dictionary, and using <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.side_effect" title="mock.Mock.side_effect"><tt class="xref py py-data docutils literal"><span class="pre">side_effect</span></tt></a> to delegate dictionary access to a real underlying dictionary that is under our control.</p> <p>When the <cite>__getitem__</cite> and <cite>__setitem__</cite> methods of our <cite>MagicMock</cite> are called (normal dictionary access) then <cite>side_effect</cite> is called with the key (and in the case of <cite>__setitem__</cite> the value too). We can also control what is returned.</p> <p>After the <cite>MagicMock</cite> has been used we can use attributes like <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.call_args_list" title="mock.Mock.call_args_list"><tt class="xref py py-data docutils literal"><span class="pre">call_args_list</span></tt></a> to assert about how the dictionary was used:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">my_dict</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">'a'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'b'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'c'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">}</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">getitem</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">my_dict</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">setitem</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">val</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">my_dict</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">val</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__getitem__</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">side_effect</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">getitem</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__setitem__</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">side_effect</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">setitem</span> </pre></div> </div> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="first admonition-title">Note</p> <p>An alternative to using <cite>MagicMock</cite> is to use <cite>Mock</cite> and <em>only</em> provide the magic methods you specifically want:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__setitem__</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">side_effect</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">getitem</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__getitem__</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">side_effect</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">setitem</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>A <em>third</em> option is to use <cite>MagicMock</cite> but passing in <cite>dict</cite> as the <cite>spec</cite> (or <cite>spec_set</cite>) argument so that the <cite>MagicMock</cite> created only has dictionary magic methods available:</p> <div class="last highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">spec_set</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">dict</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__getitem__</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">side_effect</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">getitem</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__setitem__</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">side_effect</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">setitem</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <p>With these side effect functions in place, the <cite>mock</cite> will behave like a normal dictionary but recording the access. It even raises a <cite>KeyError</cite> if you try to access a key that doesn’t exist.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'a'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="go">1</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'c'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="go">3</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'d'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">KeyError</span>: <span class="n">'d'</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'b'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'fish'</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'d'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'eggs'</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'b'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="go">'fish'</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'d'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="go">'eggs'</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>After it has been used you can make assertions about the access using the normal mock methods and attributes:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__getitem__</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">call_args_list</span> <span class="go">[call('a'), call('c'), call('d'), call('b'), call('d')]</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__setitem__</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">call_args_list</span> <span class="go">[call('b', 'fish'), call('d', 'eggs')]</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">my_dict</span> <span class="go">{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 'fish', 'd': 'eggs'}</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <div class="section" id="mock-subclasses-and-their-attributes"> <h2>Mock subclasses and their attributes<a class="headerlink" href="#mock-subclasses-and-their-attributes" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>There are various reasons why you might want to subclass <cite>Mock</cite>. One reason might be to add helper methods. Here’s a silly example:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">MyMock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">has_been_called</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">called</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">MyMock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">return_value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">None</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span> <span class="go"><MyMock id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">has_been_called</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go">False</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">has_been_called</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go">True</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>The standard behaviour for <cite>Mock</cite> instances is that attributes and the return value mocks are of the same type as the mock they are accessed on. This ensures that <cite>Mock</cite> attributes are <cite>Mocks</cite> and <cite>MagicMock</cite> attributes are <cite>MagicMocks</cite> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id5" id="id4">[2]</a>. So if you’re subclassing to add helper methods then they’ll also be available on the attributes and return value mock of instances of your subclass.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="go"><MyMock name='mock.foo' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">has_been_called</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go">False</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go"><MyMock name='mock.foo()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">has_been_called</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go">True</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Sometimes this is inconvenient. For example, <a class="reference external" href="https://code.google.com/p/mock/issues/detail?id=105">one user</a> is subclassing mock to created a <a class="reference external" href="http://twistedmatrix.com/documents/11.0.0/api/twisted.python.components.html">Twisted adaptor</a>. Having this applied to attributes too actually causes errors.</p> <p><cite>Mock</cite> (in all its flavours) uses a method called <cite>_get_child_mock</cite> to create these “sub-mocks” for attributes and return values. You can prevent your subclass being used for attributes by overriding this method. The signature is that it takes arbitrary keyword arguments (<cite>**kwargs</cite>) which are then passed onto the mock constructor:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Subclass</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">_get_child_mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Subclass</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="go"><MagicMock name='mock.foo' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">assert</span> <span class="nb">isinstance</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Subclass</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">assert</span> <span class="ow">not</span> <span class="nb">isinstance</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Subclass</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">assert</span> <span class="ow">not</span> <span class="nb">isinstance</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mymock</span><span class="p">(),</span> <span class="n">Subclass</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id5" rules="none"> <colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup> <tbody valign="top"> <tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id4">[2]</a></td><td>An exception to this rule are the non-callable mocks. Attributes use the callable variant because otherwise non-callable mocks couldn’t have callable methods.</td></tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div class="section" id="mocking-imports-with-patch-dict"> <h2>Mocking imports with patch.dict<a class="headerlink" href="#mocking-imports-with-patch-dict" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>One situation where mocking can be hard is where you have a local import inside a function. These are harder to mock because they aren’t using an object from the module namespace that we can patch out.</p> <p>Generally local imports are to be avoided. They are sometimes done to prevent circular dependencies, for which there is <em>usually</em> a much better way to solve the problem (refactor the code) or to prevent “up front costs” by delaying the import. This can also be solved in better ways than an unconditional local import (store the module as a class or module attribute and only do the import on first use).</p> <p>That aside there is a way to use <cite>mock</cite> to affect the results of an import. Importing fetches an <em>object</em> from the <cite>sys.modules</cite> dictionary. Note that it fetches an <em>object</em>, which need not be a module. Importing a module for the first time results in a module object being put in <cite>sys.modules</cite>, so usually when you import something you get a module back. This need not be the case however.</p> <p>This means you can use <a class="reference internal" href="patch.html#mock.patch.dict" title="mock.patch.dict"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">patch.dict()</span></tt></a> to <em>temporarily</em> put a mock in place in <cite>sys.modules</cite>. Any imports whilst this patch is active will fetch the mock. When the patch is complete (the decorated function exits, the with statement body is complete or <cite>patcher.stop()</cite> is called) then whatever was there previously will be restored safely.</p> <p>Here’s an example that mocks out the ‘fooble’ module.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">dict</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'sys.modules'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">'fooble'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">}):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">fooble</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">fooble</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">blob</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="go"><Mock name='mock.blob()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">assert</span> <span class="s">'fooble'</span> <span class="ow">not</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">modules</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">blob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_once_with</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>As you can see the <cite>import fooble</cite> succeeds, but on exit there is no ‘fooble’ left in <cite>sys.modules</cite>.</p> <p>This also works for the <cite>from module import name</cite> form:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">dict</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'sys.modules'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">'fooble'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">}):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">fooble</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">blob</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">blob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">blip</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="go"><Mock name='mock.blob.blip()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">blob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">blip</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_once_with</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>With slightly more work you can also mock package imports:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">modules</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">'package'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'package.module'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">module</span><span class="p">}</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">dict</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'sys.modules'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">modules</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">package.module</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">fooble</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">fooble</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="go"><Mock name='mock.module.fooble()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">module</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">fooble</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_once_with</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <div class="section" id="tracking-order-of-calls-and-less-verbose-call-assertions"> <h2>Tracking order of calls and less verbose call assertions<a class="headerlink" href="#tracking-order-of-calls-and-less-verbose-call-assertions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock" title="mock.Mock"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Mock</span></tt></a> class allows you to track the <em>order</em> of method calls on your mock objects through the <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.method_calls" title="mock.Mock.method_calls"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">method_calls</span></tt></a> attribute. This doesn’t allow you to track the order of calls between separate mock objects, however we can use <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.mock_calls" title="mock.Mock.mock_calls"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">mock_calls</span></tt></a> to achieve the same effect.</p> <p>Because mocks track calls to child mocks in <cite>mock_calls</cite>, and accessing an arbitrary attribute of a mock creates a child mock, we can create our separate mocks from a parent one. Calls to those child mock will then all be recorded, in order, in the <cite>mock_calls</cite> of the parent:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">manager</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">manager</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_bar</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">manager</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">bar</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">something</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go"><Mock name='mock.foo.something()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock_bar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">thing</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go"><Mock name='mock.bar.other.thing()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">manager</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mock_calls</span> <span class="go">[call.foo.something(), call.bar.other.thing()]</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>We can then assert about the calls, including the order, by comparing with the <cite>mock_calls</cite> attribute on the manager mock:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">expected_calls</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">call</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">something</span><span class="p">(),</span> <span class="n">call</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">bar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">thing</span><span class="p">()]</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">manager</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mock_calls</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="n">expected_calls</span> <span class="go">True</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>If <cite>patch</cite> is creating, and putting in place, your mocks then you can attach them to a manager mock using the <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.attach_mock" title="mock.Mock.attach_mock"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">attach_mock()</span></tt></a> method. After attaching calls will be recorded in <cite>mock_calls</cite> of the manager.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">manager</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.Class1'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">MockClass1</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mymodule.Class2'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">MockClass2</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">manager</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">attach_mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">MockClass1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'MockClass1'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">manager</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">attach_mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">MockClass2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'MockClass2'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">MockClass1</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">MockClass2</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">bar</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="go"><MagicMock name='mock.MockClass1().foo()' id='...'></span> <span class="go"><MagicMock name='mock.MockClass2().bar()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">manager</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mock_calls</span> <span class="go">[call.MockClass1(),</span> <span class="go"> call.MockClass1().foo(),</span> <span class="go"> call.MockClass2(),</span> <span class="go"> call.MockClass2().bar()]</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>If many calls have been made, but you’re only interested in a particular sequence of them then an alternative is to use the <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.assert_has_calls" title="mock.Mock.assert_has_calls"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">assert_has_calls()</span></tt></a> method. This takes a list of calls (constructed with the <a class="reference internal" href="helpers.html#mock.call" title="mock.call"><tt class="xref py py-data docutils literal"><span class="pre">call</span></tt></a> object). If that sequence of calls are in <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.mock_calls" title="mock.Mock.mock_calls"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">mock_calls</span></tt></a> then the assert succeeds.</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">m</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">m</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">bar</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">baz</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go"><MagicMock name='mock().foo().bar().baz()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">m</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">one</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">two</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">three</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go"><MagicMock name='mock.one().two().three()' id='...'></span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">calls</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">call</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">one</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">two</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">three</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">call_list</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">m</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_has_calls</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">calls</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Even though the chained call <cite>m.one().two().three()</cite> aren’t the only calls that have been made to the mock, the assert still succeeds.</p> <p>Sometimes a mock may have several calls made to it, and you are only interested in asserting about <em>some</em> of those calls. You may not even care about the order. In this case you can pass <cite>any_order=True</cite> to <cite>assert_has_calls</cite>:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">m</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">MagicMock</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">m</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">m</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">two</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">m</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">seven</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">7</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">m</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">fifty</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'50'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="go">(...)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">calls</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">call</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">fifty</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'50'</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">call</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">call</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">seven</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">7</span><span class="p">)]</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">m</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_has_calls</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">calls</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">any_order</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <div class="section" id="more-complex-argument-matching"> <h2>More complex argument matching<a class="headerlink" href="#more-complex-argument-matching" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>Using the same basic concept as <cite>ANY</cite> we can implement matchers to do more complex assertions on objects used as arguments to mocks.</p> <p>Suppose we expect some object to be passed to a mock that by default compares equal based on object identity (which is the Python default for user defined classes). To use <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.assert_called_with" title="mock.Mock.assert_called_with"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">assert_called_with()</span></tt></a> we would need to pass in the exact same object. If we are only interested in some of the attributes of this object then we can create a matcher that will check these attributes for us.</p> <p>You can see in this example how a ‘standard’ call to <cite>assert_called_with</cite> isn’t sufficient:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">a</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">b</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">b</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">a</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">b</span> <span class="gp">...</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">return_value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">None</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">AssertionError: Expected</span>: <span class="n">call(<__main__.Foo object at 0x...>)</span> <span class="go">Actual call: call(<__main__.Foo object at 0x...>)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>A comparison function for our <cite>Foo</cite> class might look something like this:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">compare</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="ow">not</span> <span class="nb">type</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="nb">type</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">False</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">a</span> <span class="o">!=</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">False</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">b</span> <span class="o">!=</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">b</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">False</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">True</span> <span class="gp">...</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>And a matcher object that can use comparison functions like this for its equality operation would look something like this:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Matcher</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">compare</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">some_obj</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">compare</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">compare</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">some_obj</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">some_obj</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__eq__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">compare</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">some_obj</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">...</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Putting all this together:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">match_foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Matcher</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">compare</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">match_foo</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>The <cite>Matcher</cite> is instantiated with our compare function and the <cite>Foo</cite> object we want to compare against. In <cite>assert_called_with</cite> the <cite>Matcher</cite> equality method will be called, which compares the object the mock was called with against the one we created our matcher with. If they match then <cite>assert_called_with</cite> passes, and if they don’t an <cite>AssertionError</cite> is raised:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">match_wrong</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Matcher</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">compare</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mock</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_called_with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">match_wrong</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="gr">AssertionError: Expected</span>: <span class="n">((<Matcher object at 0x...>,), {})</span> <span class="go">Called with: ((<Foo object at 0x...>,), {})</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>With a bit of tweaking you could have the comparison function raise the <cite>AssertionError</cite> directly and provide a more useful failure message.</p> <p>As of version 1.5, the Python testing library <a class="reference external" href="http://pypi.python.org/pypi/PyHamcrest">PyHamcrest</a> provides similar functionality, that may be useful here, in the form of its equality matcher (<a class="reference external" href="http://packages.python.org/PyHamcrest/integration.html#hamcrest.library.integration.match_equality">hamcrest.library.integration.match_equality</a>).</p> </div> <div class="section" id="less-verbose-configuration-of-mock-objects"> <h2>Less verbose configuration of mock objects<a class="headerlink" href="#less-verbose-configuration-of-mock-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>This recipe, for easier configuration of mock objects, is now part of <cite>Mock</cite>. See the <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.Mock.configure_mock" title="mock.Mock.configure_mock"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">configure_mock()</span></tt></a> method.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="matching-any-argument-in-assertions"> <h2>Matching any argument in assertions<a class="headerlink" href="#matching-any-argument-in-assertions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>This example is now built in to mock. See <a class="reference internal" href="helpers.html#mock.ANY" title="mock.ANY"><tt class="xref py py-data docutils literal"><span class="pre">ANY</span></tt></a>.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="mocking-properties"> <h2>Mocking Properties<a class="headerlink" href="#mocking-properties" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>This example is now built in to mock. See <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#mock.PropertyMock" title="mock.PropertyMock"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">PropertyMock</span></tt></a>.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="mocking-open"> <h2>Mocking open<a class="headerlink" href="#mocking-open" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>This example is now built in to mock. See <a class="reference internal" href="helpers.html#mock.mock_open" title="mock.mock_open"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">mock_open()</span></tt></a>.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="mocks-without-some-attributes"> <h2>Mocks without some attributes<a class="headerlink" href="#mocks-without-some-attributes" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>This example is now built in to mock. See <a class="reference internal" href="mock.html#deleting-attributes"><em>Deleting Attributes</em></a>.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h3><a href="index.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3> <ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Further Examples</a><ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mocking-chained-calls">Mocking chained calls</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#partial-mocking">Partial mocking</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mocking-a-generator-method">Mocking a Generator Method</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#applying-the-same-patch-to-every-test-method">Applying the same patch to every test method</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mocking-unbound-methods">Mocking Unbound Methods</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#checking-multiple-calls-with-mock">Checking multiple calls with mock</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#coping-with-mutable-arguments">Coping with mutable arguments</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#raising-exceptions-on-attribute-access">Raising exceptions on attribute access</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#multiple-calls-with-different-effects">Multiple calls with different effects</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#nesting-patches">Nesting Patches</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mocking-a-dictionary-with-magicmock">Mocking a dictionary with MagicMock</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mock-subclasses-and-their-attributes">Mock subclasses and their attributes</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mocking-imports-with-patch-dict">Mocking imports with patch.dict</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#tracking-order-of-calls-and-less-verbose-call-assertions">Tracking order of calls and less verbose call assertions</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#more-complex-argument-matching">More complex argument matching</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#less-verbose-configuration-of-mock-objects">Less verbose configuration of mock objects</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#matching-any-argument-in-assertions">Matching any argument in assertions</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mocking-properties">Mocking Properties</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mocking-open">Mocking open</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#mocks-without-some-attributes">Mocks without some attributes</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="getting-started.html" title="previous chapter">Getting Started with Mock</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="compare.html" title="next chapter">Mock Library Comparison</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="_sources/examples.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="compare.html" title="Mock Library Comparison" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="getting-started.html" title="Getting Started with Mock" >previous</a> |</li> <li><a href="index.html">Mock 1.0.0 documentation</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer"> © Copyright 2007-2012, Michael Foord & the mock team. Last updated on Oct 07, 2012. Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 1.1.3. </div> </body> </html>