How to test panics?

Question

I'm currently pondering how to write tests that check if a given piece of code panicked? I know that Go uses recover to catch panics, but unlike say, Java code, you can't really specify what code should be skipped in case of a panic or what have you. So if I have a function:

func f(t *testing.T) {
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r != nil {
            fmt.Println("Recovered in f", r)
        }
    }()
    OtherFunctionThatPanics()
    t.Errorf("The code did not panic")
}

I can't really tell whether OtherFunctionThatPanics panicked and we recovered, or if the function did not panic at all. How do I specify which code to skip over if there is no panic and which code to execute if there is a panic? How can I check whether there was some panic we recovered from?

Answer 1

testing doesn't really have the concept of "success," only failure. So your code above is about right. You might find this style slightly more clear, but it's basically the same thing.

func TestPanic(t *testing.T) {
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r == nil {
            t.Errorf("The code did not panic")
        }
    }()

    // The following is the code under test
    OtherFunctionThatPanics()
}

I generally find testing to be fairly weak. You may be interested in more powerful testing engines like Ginkgo. Even if you don't want the full Ginkgo system, you can use just its matcher library, Gomega, which can be used along with testing. Gomega includes matchers like:

Expect(OtherFunctionThatPanics).To(Panic())

You can also wrap up panic-checking into a simple function:

func TestPanic(t *testing.T) {
    assertPanic(t, OtherFunctionThatPanics)
}

func assertPanic(t *testing.T, f func()) {
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r == nil {
            t.Errorf("The code did not panic")
        }
    }()
    f()
}

Answer 2

If you use testify/assert, then it's a one-liner:

func TestOtherFunctionThatPanics(t *testing.T) {
  assert.Panics(t, OtherFunctionThatPanics, "The code did not panic")
}

Or, if your OtherFunctionThatPanics has a signature other than func():

func TestOtherFunctionThatPanics(t *testing.T) {
  assert.Panics(t, func() { OtherFunctionThatPanics(arg) }, "The code did not panic")
}

If you haven't tried testify yet, then also check out testify/mock. Super simple assertions and mocks.

Answer 3

Idiomatic Standard Library Solution

To me, the solution below is easy to read and shows a maintainer the natural code flow under test. Also, it doesn't require a third-party package.

func TestPanic(t *testing.T) {
    // No need to check whether `recover()` is nil. Just turn off the panic.
    defer func() { recover() }()

    OtherFunctionThatPanics()

    // Never reaches here if `OtherFunctionThatPanics` panics.
    t.Errorf("did not panic")
}

---

For a more general solution, you can also do it like this:

func TestPanic(t *testing.T) {
    shouldPanic(t, OtherFunctionThatPanics)
}

func shouldPanic(t *testing.T, f func()) {
    defer func() { recover() }()
    f()
    t.Errorf("should have panicked")
}

Answer 4

When looping over multiple test cases I would go for something like this:

package main

import (
    "reflect"
    "testing"
)


func TestYourFunc(t *testing.T) {
    type args struct {
        arg1 int
        arg2 int
        arg3 int
    }
    tests := []struct {
        name      string
        args      args
        want      []int
        wantErr   bool
        wantPanic bool
    }{
        //TODO: write test cases
    }
    for _, tt := range tests {
        t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
            defer func() {
                r := recover()
                if (r != nil) != tt.wantPanic {
                    t.Errorf("SequenceInt() recover = %v, wantPanic = %v", r, tt.wantPanic)
                }
            }()
            got, err := YourFunc(tt.args.arg1, tt.args.arg2, tt.args.arg3)
            if (err != nil) != tt.wantErr {
                t.Errorf("YourFunc() error = %v, wantErr %v", err, tt.wantErr)
                return
            }
            if !reflect.DeepEqual(got, tt.want) {
                t.Errorf("YourFunc() = %v, want %v", got, tt.want)
            }
        })
    }
}

Go playground

Answer 5

When you need to check the content of the panic, you can typecast the recovered value:

func TestIsAheadComparedToPanicsWithDifferingStreams(t *testing.T) {
    defer func() {
        err := recover().(error)

        if err.Error() != "Cursor: cannot compare cursors from different streams" {
            t.Fatalf("Wrong panic message: %s", err.Error())
        }
    }()

    c1 := CursorFromserializedMust("/foo:0:0")
    c2 := CursorFromserializedMust("/bar:0:0")

    // must panic
    c1.IsAheadComparedTo(c2)
}

If the code you're testing does not panic OR panic with an error OR panic with the error message you expect it to, the test will fail (which is what you'd want).

Answer 6

In your case you can do:

func f(t *testing.T) {
    recovered := func() (r bool) {
        defer func() {
            if r := recover(); r != nil {
                r = true
            }
        }()
        OtherFunctionThatPanics()
        // NOT BE EXECUTED IF PANICS
        // ....
    }
    if ! recovered() {
        t.Errorf("The code did not panic")

        // EXECUTED IF PANICS
        // ....
    }
}

As a generic panic router function this will also work:

https://github.com/7d4b9/recover

package recover

func Recovered(IfPanic, Else func(), Then func(recover interface{})) (recoverElse interface{}) {
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r != nil {
            {
                // EXECUTED IF PANICS
                if Then != nil {
                    Then(r)
                }
            }
        }
    }()

    IfPanic()

    {
        // NOT BE EXECUTED IF PANICS
        if Else != nil {
            defer func() {
                recoverElse = recover()
            }()
            Else()
        }
    }
    return
}

var testError = errors.New("expected error")

func TestRecover(t *testing.T) {
    Recovered(
        func() {
            panic(testError)
        },
        func() {
            t.Errorf("The code did not panic")
        },
        func(r interface{}) {
            if err := r.(error); err != nil {
                assert.Error(t, testError, err)
                return
            }
            t.Errorf("The code did an unexpected panic")
        },
    )
}

Answer 7

Below is my panic expected

func TestPanic(t *testing.T) {

    panicF := func() {
        //panic call here
    }
    require.Panics(t, panicF)
}

Answer 8

You can test which function paniced by giving panic an input

package main

import "fmt"

func explode() {
    // Cause a panic.
    panic("WRONG")
}

func explode1() {
    // Cause a panic.
    panic("WRONG1")
}

func main() {
    // Handle errors in defer func with recover.
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r != nil {
            var ok bool
            err, ok := r.(error)
            if !ok {
                err = fmt.Errorf("pkg: %v", r)
                fmt.Println(err)
            }
        }

    }()
    // These causes an error. change between these
    explode()
    //explode1()

    fmt.Println("Everything fine")

}

http://play.golang.org/p/ORWBqmPSVA