.toThrow(error)
Also under the alias: .toThrowError(error)
Use .toThrow
to test that a function throws when it is called. For example, if we want to test that drinkFlavor('octopus')
throws, because octopus flavor is too disgusting to drink, we could write:
test('throws on octopus', () => {
expect(() => {
drinkFlavor('octopus');
}).toThrow();
});
To test that a specific error is thrown, you can provide an argument:
- regular expression: error message matches the pattern
- string: error message includes the substring
- error object: error message is equal to the message property of the object
- error class: error object is instance of class
For example, let's say thatdrinkFlavor
is coded like this:
function drinkFlavor(flavor) {
if (flavor == 'octopus') {
throw new DisgustingFlavorError('yuck, octopus flavor');
}
// Do some other stuff
}
We could test this error gets thrown in several ways:
test('throws on octopus', () => {
function drinkOctopus() {
drinkFlavor('octopus');
}
// Test that the error message says "yuck" somewhere: these are equivalent
expect(drinkOctopus).toThrowError(/yuck/);
expect(drinkOctopus).toThrowError('yuck');
// Test the exact error message
expect(drinkOctopus).toThrowError(/^yuck, octopus flavor$/);
expect(drinkOctopus).toThrowError(new Error('yuck, octopus flavor'));
// Test that we get a DisgustingFlavorError
expect(drinkOctopus).toThrowError(DisgustingFlavorError);
});
Note: You must wrap the code in a function, otherwise the error will not be caught and the assertion will fail.