How to properly assert that an exception gets raised in pytest?

Question

Code:

# coding=utf-8
import pytest


def whatever():
    return 9/0

def test_whatever():
    try:
        whatever()
    except ZeroDivisionError as exc:
        pytest.fail(exc, pytrace=True)

Output:

================================ test session starts =================================
platform linux2 -- Python 2.7.3 -- py-1.4.20 -- pytest-2.5.2
plugins: django, cov
collected 1 items 

pytest_test.py F

====================================== FAILURES ======================================
___________________________________ test_whatever ____________________________________

    def test_whatever():
        try:
            whatever()
        except ZeroDivisionError as exc:
>           pytest.fail(exc, pytrace=True)
E           Failed: integer division or modulo by zero

pytest_test.py:12: Failed
============================== 1 failed in 1.16 seconds ==============================

How to make pytest print traceback, so I would see where in the whatever function an exception was raised?

Solution 1

pytest.raises(Exception) is what you need.

Code

import pytest

def test_passes():
    with pytest.raises(Exception) as e_info:
        x = 1 / 0

def test_passes_without_info():
    with pytest.raises(Exception):
        x = 1 / 0

def test_fails():
    with pytest.raises(Exception) as e_info:
        x = 1 / 1

def test_fails_without_info():
    with pytest.raises(Exception):
        x = 1 / 1

# Don't do this. Assertions are caught as exceptions.
def test_passes_but_should_not():
    try:
        x = 1 / 1
        assert False
    except Exception:
        assert True

# Even if the appropriate exception is caught, it is bad style,
# because the test result is less informative
# than it would be with pytest.raises(e)
# (it just says pass or fail.)

def test_passes_but_bad_style():
    try:
        x = 1 / 0
        assert False
    except ZeroDivisionError:
        assert True

def test_fails_but_bad_style():
    try:
        x = 1 / 1
        assert False
    except ZeroDivisionError:
        assert True

Output

============================================================================================= test session starts ==============================================================================================
platform linux2 -- Python 2.7.6 -- py-1.4.26 -- pytest-2.6.4
collected 7 items 

test.py ..FF..F

=================================================================================================== FAILURES ===================================================================================================
__________________________________________________________________________________________________ test_fails __________________________________________________________________________________________________

    def test_fails():
        with pytest.raises(Exception) as e_info:
>           x = 1 / 1
E           Failed: DID NOT RAISE

test.py:13: Failed
___________________________________________________________________________________________ test_fails_without_info ____________________________________________________________________________________________

    def test_fails_without_info():
        with pytest.raises(Exception):
>           x = 1 / 1
E           Failed: DID NOT RAISE

test.py:17: Failed
___________________________________________________________________________________________ test_fails_but_bad_style ___________________________________________________________________________________________

    def test_fails_but_bad_style():
        try:
            x = 1 / 1
>           assert False
E           assert False

test.py:43: AssertionError
====================================================================================== 3 failed, 4 passed in 0.02 seconds ======================================================================================

Note that e_info saves the exception object so you can extract details from it. For example, if you want to check the exception call stack or another nested exception inside.

Solution 2

Do you mean something like this:

def test_raises():
    with pytest.raises(Exception) as exc_info:   
        raise Exception('some info')
    # these asserts are identical; you can use either one   
    assert exc_info.value.args[0] == 'some info'
    assert str(exc_info.value) == 'some info'

Solution 3

There are two ways to handle these kind of cases in pytest:

• Using pytest.raises function

• Using pytest.mark.xfail decorator

As the documentation says:

Using pytest.raises is likely to be better for cases where you are testing exceptions your own code is deliberately raising, whereas using @pytest.mark.xfail with a check function is probably better for something like documenting unfixed bugs (where the test describes what “should” happen) or bugs in dependencies.

Usage of pytest.raises:

def whatever():
    return 9/0
def test_whatever():
    with pytest.raises(ZeroDivisionError):
        whatever()

Usage of pytest.mark.xfail:

@pytest.mark.xfail(raises=ZeroDivisionError)
def test_whatever():
    whatever()

Output of pytest.raises:

============================= test session starts ============================
platform linux2 -- Python 2.7.10, pytest-3.2.3, py-1.4.34, pluggy-0.4.0 -- 
/usr/local/python_2.7_10/bin/python
cachedir: .cache
rootdir: /home/user, inifile:
collected 1 item

test_fun.py::test_whatever PASSED


======================== 1 passed in 0.01 seconds =============================

Output of pytest.xfail marker:

============================= test session starts ============================
platform linux2 -- Python 2.7.10, pytest-3.2.3, py-1.4.34, pluggy-0.4.0 -- 
/usr/local/python_2.7_10/bin/python
cachedir: .cache
rootdir: /home/user, inifile:
collected 1 item

test_fun.py::test_whatever xfail

======================== 1 xfailed in 0.03 seconds=============================

Solution 4

pytest constantly evolves and with one of the nice changes in the recent past it is now possible to simultaneously test for

• the exception type (strict test)
• the error message (strict or loose check using a regular expression)

Two examples from the documentation:

with pytest.raises(ValueError, match='must be 0 or None'):
    raise ValueError('value must be 0 or None')

with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=r'must be \d+$'):
    raise ValueError('value must be 42')

I have been using that approach in a number of projects and like it very much.

Note: This comment by ilya-rusin also suggests aforementioned approach.

Solution 5

you can try

def test_exception():
    with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:   
        function_that_raises_exception()   
    assert str(excinfo.value) == 'some info' 

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