Assert an object value is within a range in PHPUnit

Question

I'm fairly new to using PHPUnit, so I hope this isn't a time-wasting question:

I have a set of tests which assert equals on an object.

The issue is when the dates are set, the date/time might be off by 1 second. I know it is possible to assert a value is between two values, like so:

$this->assertThat(
    $testFloat,
    $this->logicalAnd(
        $this->greaterThan(1.65),
        $this->lessThan(1.66)
    )
);

However, my value resides inside an object, so my assertEquals fails.

Can anybody help, or give some clues how to work around this?

Answer 1

Your best option is to refactor either your tests or your code so that the time won't be off by a second and the objects will be equal. Without seeing the code, I am not sure exactly what you want to do. But I am guessing that you are creating a date/time in your code that you are testing. Make the time a parameter that you have to provide and then you don't have to worry about being off by a second or anything.

Something that is hard to test is a code smell. Change the code to make it easier to test. If that isn't an option, then you will have to not compare objects. Instead, I would check the type of the object and examine all of the public properties to make sure that things were correct.

assertEquals also can take a delta for comparing values.

https://phpunit.readthedocs.io/en/7.1/assertions.html#assertequals

assertEquals(float $expected, float $actual[, string $message = '', float $delta = 0])

Though I don't think that this will work for objects. It was intended for floating point comparisons.