deep-assert

The most developer-friendly way to write assertions for large or complicated objects and arrays.

• Use any() and satisfies() property matchers
• Short, but precise diffs, even for large nested objects
• Works with objects, arrays, dates, buffers, and more
• Write custom property assertions
• Zero dependencies

Installation

npm install deep-assert

Usage

Basic

Let's say we want to check if an array of user objects matches our expectation, but we don't know what the id is gonna be, since it's a random ID. It's easy, using any().

import * as assert from "assert-deep"

assert.deepEquals(
  // Actual value:
  {
    id: Math.random(),
    name: "John Smith",
    meta: {
      isActive: true,
      lastLogin: new Date("2019-04-29T12:31:00")
    }
  },
  // Expectation:
  {
    id: assert.any(),
    name: "John Smith",
    meta: {
      isActive: true,
      lastLogin: new Date("2019-04-29T12:31:00")
    }
  }
])

Custom assertions

Let's try the previous use case again, but this time we check that the id is a valid UUIDv4. We use the satisfies() helper function to create a custom assertion to be used within the object expectation.

import * as assert from "assert-deep"

const assertPositiveNumber = () => assert.satisfies(value => typeof value === "number" && value > 0)

assert.deepEquals(
  // Actual value:
  {
    id: Math.random(),
    name: "John Smith",
    meta: {
      isActive: true,
      lastLogin: new Date("2019-04-29T12:31:00")
    }
  },
  // Expectation:
  {
    id: assertPositiveNumber(),
    name: "John Smith",
    meta: {
      isActive: true,
      lastLogin: new Date("2019-04-29T12:31:00")
    }
  }
])

Spreading any()

Normally deepEquals() will fail if there are properties on the tested object that don't exist on the expectation. We can use any() with the object spread operator to allow additional properties to be present.

deepEquals() will then only check the expected properties and ignore all other ones.

import * as assert from "assert-deep"

assert.deepEquals(
  // Actual value:
  {
    id: Math.random(),
    name: "John Smith",
    meta: {
      isActive: true,
      lastLogin: new Date("2019-04-29T12:31:00")
    }
  },
  // Expectation:
  {
    id: assert.any(),
    name: "John Smith",
    ...assert.any()
  }
])

Recursive objects

You can call deepEquals() in a custom satisfies() as well. This way you can easily test recursive data structures, for instance.

import * as assert from "assert-deep"

const actual = { foo: {} }
actual.foo.parent = actual.foo

assert.deepEquals(actual, {
  foo: assert.satisfies(foo => assert.deepEquals(foo, { parent: foo }))
})

License

MIT