rspec testing a single part of a method

Question

I have this method for a tic tac tow game:

def start(token)
  if token == "X"
    puts "#{@player1}: Please enter a number for your X to go"
  elsif token == "O"
    puts "#{@player2}: Please enter a number for your O to go"
  end

  player_input = STDIN.gets.chomp

  locate_player_input(token, player_input)
end

I'm only trying to test to see if the correct thing is puts'd to the terminal. I have this test:

describe "#start" do
  context "X player's turns" do
    it "prints proper messege" do
      expect(STDOUT).to receive(:puts).with("Harry: Please enter a number for your X to go")
      game.start("X")
    end
  end
end

But I have a feeling the game.start("X") line is what is not making this work. How can I write the test to just check if the puts statement is correctly outputted?

A refactoring suggestion: instead of the if, else, just use puts "#{@player2}: Please enter a number for your #{token} to go". — lwassink
good looks. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to implement it when I start to refactor — Harry B.
The terminal is just waiting for the user to input something, which I'm assuming is caused by the gets statement in the actual method once game.start("X") is called — Harry B.

Harry B. Harry B. · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-14T19:52:24

I think I figured it out. Since my function was first puts-ing something and then calling the next method to be run, I needed another expect statement. My passing test is as such:

describe "#start" do
    context "X player's turns" do
        it "prints proper messege" do
            expect(STDOUT).to receive(:puts).with("Harry: Please enter a number for your X to go")
            expect(game).to receive(:get_input)
            game.start("X")
        end
    end
end

I'm not sure if this is correct, but the test did pass.

rspec testing a single part of a method

1 Answers