How do I test a jest console.log

Question

I'm using create-react-app and trying to write a jest test that checks the output of a console.log.

My function to test is:

export const log = logMsg => console.log(logMsg); 

My test is :

it('console.log the text "hello"', () => {   console.log = jest.fn('hello');   expect(logMsg).toBe('hello'); }); 

Here is my error

 FAIL  src/utils/general.test.js   ● console.log the text hello      expect(received).toBe(expected)    Expected value to be (using ===):      "hello"     Received:       undefined     Difference:       Comparing two different types of values. Expected string but received undefined. 

Answer 1

If you want to check that console.log received the right parameter (the one that you passed in) you should check mock of your jest.fn().
You also have to invoke your log function, otherwise console.log is never invoked:

it('console.log the text "hello"', () => {   console.log = jest.fn();   log('hello');   // The first argument of the first call to the function was 'hello'   expect(console.log.mock.calls[0][0]).toBe('hello'); }); 

or

it('console.log the text "hello"', () => {   console.log = jest.fn();   log('hello');   // The first argument of the first call to the function was 'hello'   expect(console.log).toHaveBeenCalledWith('hello'); }); 

If you're going with this approach don't forget to restore the original value of console.log.

Another option is to use jest.spyOn (instead of replacing the console.log it will create a proxy to it):

it('console.log the text "hello"', () => {   const logSpy = jest.spyOn(console, 'log');    console.log('hello');    expect(logSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith('hello'); }); 

Read more here.

Answer 2

Or you could do it like this:

it('calls console.log with "hello"', () => {   const consoleSpy = jest.spyOn(console, 'log');    console.log('hello');    expect(consoleSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith('hello'); });