JUnit 5 Assertions with Examples

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Overview

As we know JUnit 4 Assertions and in JUnit 5 there few additional asserts. In this post, let's discuss each assertion with an example.
JUnit Jupiter comes with many of the assertion methods that JUnit 4 has and adds a few that lend themselves well to being used with Java 8 lambdas. All JUnit Jupiter assertions are static methods in the org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions class.

JUnit 5 Assertions with Examples

Let’s start reviewing the assertions available also in JUnit 4.

assertArrayEquals

The assertArrayEquals assertion verifies that the expected and the actual arrays are equals:
@Test
public void whenAssertingArraysEquality_thenEqual() {
    char[] expected = { 'J', 'u', 'p', 'i', 't', 'e', 'r' };
    char[] actual = "Jupiter".toCharArray();
 
    assertArrayEquals(expected, actual, "Arrays should be equal");
}
If the arrays aren’t equal, the message “Arrays should be equal” will be displayed as output.

assertEquals

In case we want to assert that two floats are equals, we can use the simple assertEquals assertion:
@Test
public void whenAssertingEquality_thenEqual() {
    float square = 2 * 2;
    float rectangle = 2 * 2;
 
    assertEquals(square, rectangle);
}
However, if we want to assert that the actual value differs by a predefined delta from the expected value, we can still use the assertEquals but we have to pass the delta value as the third parameter:
@Test
public void whenAssertingEqualityWithDelta_thenEqual() {
    float square = 2 * 2;
    float rectangle = 3 * 2;
    float delta = 2;
 
    assertEquals(square, rectangle, delta);
}

assertTrue and assertFalse

With the assertTrue assertion, it’s possible to verify the supplied conditions are true:
@Test
public void whenAssertingConditions_thenVerified() {
    assertTrue(5 > 4, "5 is greater the 4");
    assertTrue(null == null, "null is equal to null");
}
Thanks to the support of the lambda expression, it’s possible to supply a BooleanSupplier to the assertion instead of a boolean condition.
Let’s see how we can assert the correctness of a BooleanSupplier using the assertFalse assertion:
@Test
public void givenBooleanSupplier_whenAssertingCondition_thenVerified() {
    BooleanSupplier condition = () -> 5 > 6;
 
    assertFalse(condition, "5 is not greater then 6");
}

assertNull and assertNotNull

When we want to assert that an object is not null we can use the assertNotNull assertion:
@Test
public void whenAssertingNotNull_thenTrue() {
    Object dog = new Object();
 
    assertNotNull(dog, () -> "The dog should not be null");
}
In the opposite way, we can use the assertNull assertion to check if the actual is null:
@Test
public void whenAssertingNull_thenTrue() {
    Object cat = null;
 
    assertNull(cat, () -> "The cat should be null");
}
In both cases, the failure message will be retrieved in a lazy way since it’s a Supplier.

assertSame and assertNotSame

When we want to assert that the expected and the actual refer to the same Object, we must use the assertSame assertion:
@Test
public void whenAssertingSameObject_thenSuccessfull() {
    String language = "Java";
    Optional<String> optional = Optional.of(language);
 
    assertSame(language, optional.get());
}
In the opposite way, we can use the assertNotSame one.

fail

The fail assertion fails a test with the provided failure message as well as the underlying cause. This can be useful to mark a test when it’s development it’s not completed:
@Test
public void whenFailingATest_thenFailed() {
    // Test not completed
    fail("FAIL - test not completed");
}

assertAll

One of the new assertion introduced in JUnit 5 is assertAll.
This assertion allows the creation of grouped assertions, where all the assertions are executed and their failures are reported together. In details, this assertion accepts a heading, that will be included in the message string for the MultipleFailureError, and a Stream of Executable.
Let’s define a grouped assertion:
@Test
public void givenMultipleAssertion_whenAssertingAll_thenOK() {
    assertAll(
      "heading",
      () -> assertEquals(4, 2 * 2, "4 is 2 times 2"),
      () -> assertEquals("java", "JAVA".toLowerCase()),
      () -> assertEquals(null, null, "null is equal to null")
    );
}
The execution of a grouped assertion is interrupted only when one of the executables throws a blacklisted exception (OutOfMemoryError for example).

assertIterableEquals

The assertIterableEquals asserts that the expected and the actual iterables are deeply equal.
In order to be equal, both iterable must return equal elements in the same order and it isn’t required that the two iterables are of the same type in order to be equal.
With this consideration, let’s see how we can assert that two lists of different types (LinkedList and ArrayList for example) are equal:
@Test
public void givenTwoLists_whenAssertingIterables_thenEquals() {
    Iterable<String> al = new ArrayList<>(asList("Java", "Junit", "Test"));
    Iterable<String> ll = new LinkedList<>(asList("Java", "Junit", "Test"));
 
    assertIterableEquals(al, ll);
}
In the same way of the assertArrayEquals, if both iterables are null, they are considered equal.

assertLinesMatch

The assertLinesMatch asserts that the expected list of String matches the actual list.
This method differs from the assertEquals and assertIterableEquals since, for each pair of expected and actual lines, it performs this algorithm:
check if the expected line is equal to the actual one. If yes it continues with the next pair treat the expected line as a regular expression and performs a check with the String.matches() method. If yes it continues with the next pair check if the expected line is a fast-forward marker. If yes apply fast-forward and repeat the algorithm from the step 1 Let’s see how we can use this assertion to assert that two lists of String have matching lines:
@Test
public void whenAssertingEqualityListOfStrings_thenEqual() {
    List<String> expected = asList("Java", "\\d+", "JUnit");
    List<String> actual = asList("Java", "11", "JUnit");
 
    assertLinesMatch(expected, actual);
}

assertNotEquals

Complementary to the assertEquals, the assertNotEquals assertion asserts that the expected and the actual values aren’t equal:
@Test
public void whenAssertingEquality_thenNotEqual() {
    Integer value = 5; // result of an algorithm
     
    assertNotEquals(0, value, "The result cannot be 0");
}
If both are null, the assertion fails.

assertThrows

In order to increase simplicity and readability, the new assertThrows assertion allows us a clear and a simple way to assert if an executable throws the specified exception type.
Let’s see how we can assert a thrown exception:
@Test
void whenAssertingException_thenThrown() {
    Throwable exception = assertThrows(
      IllegalArgumentException.class, 
      () -> {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("Exception message");
      }
    );
    assertEquals("Exception message", exception.getMessage());
}
The assertion will fail if no exception is thrown, or if an exception of a different type is thrown.

assertTimeout and assertTimeoutPreemptively

In case we want to assert that the execution of a supplied Executable ends before a given Timeout, we can use the assertTimeout assertion:
@Test
public void whenAssertingTimeout_thenNotExceeded() {
    assertTimeout(
      ofSeconds(2), 
      () -> {
        // code that requires less then 2 minutes to execute
        Thread.sleep(1000);
      }
    );
}

Complete example for reference

import static java.time.Duration.ofMillis;
import static java.time.Duration.ofMinutes;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertAll;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertNotNull;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTimeout;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTimeoutPreemptively;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

class AssertionsDemo {

    @Test
    void standardAssertions() {
        assertEquals(2, 2);
        assertEquals(4, 4, "The optional assertion message is now the last parameter.");
        assertTrue('a' < 'b', () -> "Assertion messages can be lazily evaluated -- "
                + "to avoid constructing complex messages unnecessarily.");
    }

    @Test
    void groupedAssertions() {
        // In a grouped assertion all assertions are executed, and any
        // failures will be reported together.
        assertAll("person",
            () -> assertEquals("John", person.getFirstName()),
            () -> assertEquals("Doe", person.getLastName())
        );
    }

    @Test
    void dependentAssertions() {
        // Within a code block, if an assertion fails the
        // subsequent code in the same block will be skipped.
        assertAll("properties",
            () -> {
                String firstName = person.getFirstName();
                assertNotNull(firstName);

                // Executed only if the previous assertion is valid.
                assertAll("first name",
                    () -> assertTrue(firstName.startsWith("J")),
                    () -> assertTrue(firstName.endsWith("n"))
                );
            },
            () -> {
                // Grouped assertion, so processed independently
                // of results of first name assertions.
                String lastName = person.getLastName();
                assertNotNull(lastName);

                // Executed only if the previous assertion is valid.
                assertAll("last name",
                    () -> assertTrue(lastName.startsWith("D")),
                    () -> assertTrue(lastName.endsWith("e"))
                );
            }
        );
    }

    @Test
    void exceptionTesting() {
        Throwable exception = assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("a message");
        });
        assertEquals("a message", exception.getMessage());
    }

    @Test
    void timeoutNotExceeded() {
        // The following assertion succeeds.
        assertTimeout(ofMinutes(2), () -> {
            // Perform task that takes less than 2 minutes.
        });
    }

    @Test
    void timeoutNotExceededWithResult() {
        // The following assertion succeeds, and returns the supplied object.
        String actualResult = assertTimeout(ofMinutes(2), () -> {
            return "a result";
        });
        assertEquals("a result", actualResult);
    }

    @Test
    void timeoutNotExceededWithMethod() {
        // The following assertion invokes a method reference and returns an object.
        String actualGreeting = assertTimeout(ofMinutes(2), AssertionsDemo::greeting);
        assertEquals("Hello, World!", actualGreeting);
    }

    @Test
    void timeoutExceeded() {
        // The following assertion fails with an error message similar to:
        // execution exceeded timeout of 10 ms by 91 ms
        assertTimeout(ofMillis(10), () -> {
            // Simulate task that takes more than 10 ms.
            Thread.sleep(100);
        });
    }

    @Test
    void timeoutExceededWithPreemptiveTermination() {
        // The following assertion fails with an error message similar to:
        // execution timed out after 10 ms
        assertTimeoutPreemptively(ofMillis(10), () -> {
            // Simulate task that takes more than 10 ms.
            Thread.sleep(100);
        });
    }

    private static String greeting() {
        return "Hello, World!";
    }

}

Conclusion

In this post, We saw the JUnit Jupiter comes with many of the assertion methods that JUnit 4 has and adds a few that lend themselves well to being used with Java 8 lambdas. All JUnit Jupiter assertions are static methods in the org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions class.

JUnit 5 Related Posts

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