Test::Deep(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Test::Deep(3)NAMETest::Deep - Extremely flexible deep comparison
SYNOPSIS
use Test::More tests => $Num_Tests;
use Test::Deep;
cmp_deeply(
$actual_horrible_nested_data_structure,
$expected_horrible_nested_data_structure,
"got the right horrible nested data structure"
);
cmp_deeply(
$object,
methods(name => "John", phone => "55378008"),
"object methods ok"
);
cmp_deeply(
\@array,
[$hash1, $hash2, ignore()],
"first 2 elements are as expected, ignoring 3"
);
cmp_deeply(
$object,
noclass({value => 5}),
"object looks ok, not checking it's class"
);
cmp_deeply(
\@result,
bag('a', 'b', {key => [1, 2]}),
"array has the 3 things we wanted in some order"
);
DESCRIPTION
If you don't know anything about automated testing in Perl then you
should probably read about Test::Simple and Test::More before preced‐
ing. Test::Deep uses the Test::Builder framework.
Test::Deep gives you very flexible ways to check that the result you
got is the result you were expecting. At it's simplest it compares two
structures by going through each level, ensuring that the values match,
that arrays and hashes have the same elements and that references are
blessed into the correct class. It also handles circular data struc‐
tures without getting caught in an infinite loop.
Where it becomes more interesting is in allowing you to do something
besides simple exact comparisons. With strings, the "eq" operator
checks that 2 strings are exactly equal but sometimes that's not what
you want. When you don't know exactly what the string should be but you
do know some things about how it should look, "eq" is no good and you
must use pattern matching instead. Test::Deep provides pattern matching
for complex data structures
EXAMPLES
How Test::Deep works is much easier to understand by seeing some exam‐
ples.
Without Test::Deep
Say you want to test a function which returns a string. You know that
your string should be a 7 digit number beginning with 0, "eq" is no
good in this situation, you need a regular expression. So you could use
Test::More's "like()" function:
like($string, '/^0d{6}$/', "number looks good");
Similarly, to check that a string looks like a name, you could do:
like($string, '/^(Mr⎪Mrs⎪Miss) \w+ \w+$/',
"got title, first and last name");
Now imagine your function produces a hash with some personal details in
it. You want to make sure that there are 2 keys, Name and Phone and
that the name looks like a name and the phone number looks like a phone
number. You could do:
$hash = make_person();
like($hash->{Name}, '/^(Mr⎪Mrs⎪Miss) \w+ \w+$/', "name ok");
like($hash->{Phone}, '/^0d{6}$/', "phone ok");
is(scalar keys %$hash, 2, "correct number of keys");
But that's not quite right, what if make_person has a serious problem
and didn't even return a hash? We really need to write
if (ref($hash) eq "HASH")
{
like($hash->{Name}, '/^(Mr⎪Mrs⎪Miss) \w+ \w+$/', "name ok");
like($hash->{Phone}, '/^0d{6}$/', "phone ok");
is(scalar keys %$hash, 2, "correct number of keys");
}
else
{
fail("person not a hash");
fail("person not a hash");
fail("person not a hash"); # need 3 to keep the plan correct
}
Already this is getting messy, now imagine another entry in the hash,
an array of children's names. This would require
if (ref($hash) eq "HASH")
{
like($hash->{Name}, $name_pat, "name ok");
like($hash->{Phone}, '/^0d{6}$/', "phone ok");
my $cn = $hash->{ChildNames};
if (ref($cn) eq "ARRAY")
{
foreach my $child (@$cn)
{
like($child, $name_pat);
}
}
else
{
fail("child names not an array")
}
}
else
{
fail("person not a hash");
}
This is a horrible mess and because we don't know in advance how many
children's names there will be, we can't make a plan for our test any‐
more (actually, we could but it would make things even more compli‐
cated).
Test::Deep to the rescue.
With Test::Deep
my $name_re = re('^(Mr⎪Mrs⎪Miss) \w+ \w+$');
cmp_deeply(
$person,
{
Name => $name_re,
Phone => re('^0d{6}$'),
ChildNames => array_each($name_re)
},
"person ok"
);
This will do everything that the messy code above does and it will give
a sensible message telling you exactly what went wrong if it finds a
part of $person that doesn't match the pattern. "re()" and
"array_each()" are special function imported from Test::Deep. They cre‐
ate a marker that tells Test::Deep that something different is happen‐
ing here. Instead of just doing a simple comparison and checking are
two things exactly equal, it should do something else.
If a person was asked to check that 2 structures are equal, they could
print them both out and compare them line by line. The markers above
are similar to writing a note in red pen on one of the printouts
telling the person that for this piece of the structure, they should
stop doing simple line by line comparison and do something else.
"re($regex)" means that Test::Deep should check that the current piece
of data matches the regex in $regex. "array_each($struct)" means that
Test::Deep should expect the current piece of data to be an array and
it should check that every element of that array matches $struct. In
this case, every element of "$person->{ChildNames}" should look like a
name. If say the 3rd one didn't you would get an error message some‐
thing like
Using Regexp on $data->{ChildNames}[3]
got : 'Queen John Paul Sartre'
expect : /^(Mr⎪Mrs⎪Miss) \w+ \w+$/
There are lots of other special comparisons available, see "SPECIAL
COMPARISONS PROVIDED" below for the full list.
Reusing structures
Test::Deep is good for reusing test structures so you can do this
my $name_re = re('^(Mr⎪Mrs⎪Miss) \w+ \w+$');
my $person_cmp = {
Name => $name_re,
Phone => re('^0d{6}$'),
ChildNames => array_each($name_re)
};
cmp_deeply($person1, $person_cmp, "person ok");
cmp_deeply($person2, $person_cmp, "person ok");
cmp_deeply($person3, $person_cmp, "person ok");
You can even put $person_cmp in a module and let other people use it
when they are writing test scripts for modules that use your modules.
To make things a little more difficult, lets change the person data
structure so that instead of a list of ChildNames, it contains a list
of hashes, one for each child. So in fact our person structure will
contain other person structures which may contain other person struc‐
tures and so on. This is easy to handle with Test::Deep because
Test::Deep structures can include themselves. Simply do
my $name_re = re('^(Mr⎪Mrs⎪Miss) \w+ \w+$');
my $person_cmp = {
Name => $name_re,
Phone => re('^0d{6}$'),
# note no mention of Children here
};
$person_cmp->{Children} = array_each($person_cmp);
cmp_deeply($person, $person_cmp, "person ok");
This will now check that $person->{Children} is an array and that every
element of that array also matches $person_cmp, this includes checking
that it's children also match the same pattern and so on.
Circular data structures
A circular data structure is one which loops back on itself, you can
make one easily by doing
my @b;
my @a = (1, 2, 3, \@b);
push(@b, \@a);
now @a contains a reference to be @b and @b contains a reference to @a.
This causes problems if you have a program that wants to look inside @a
and keep looking deeper and deeper at every level, it could get caught
in an infinite loop looking into @a then @b then @a then @b and so on.
Test::Deep avoids this problem so we can extend our example further by
saying that a person should also list their parents.
my $name_re = re('^(Mr⎪Mrs⎪Miss) \w+ \w+$');
my $person_cmp = {
Name => $name_re,
Phone => re('^0d{6}$'),
# note no mention of Children here
};
$person_cmp->{Children} = each_array($person_cmp);
$person_cmp->{Parents} = each_array($person_cmp);
cmp_deeply($person, $person_cmp, "person ok");
So this will check that for each child $child in "$person->{Children}"
that the "$child->{Parents}" matches $person_cmp however it is smart
enough not to get caught in an infinite loop where it keeps bouncing
between the same Parent and Child.
TERMINOLOGY
"cmp_deeply($got, $expected, $name)" takes 3 arguments. $got is the
structure that you are checking, you must not include any special com‐
parisons in this structure or you will get a fatal error. $expected
describes what Test::Deep will be looking for in $got. You can put spe‐
cial comparisons in $expected if you want to.
As Test::Deep descends through the 2 structures, it compares them one
piece at a time, so at any point in the process, Test::Deep is thinking
about 2 things - the current value from $got and the current value from
$expected. In the documentation, I call them $got_v and "exp_v" respec‐
tively.
COMPARISON FUNCTIONS
$ok = cmp_deeply($got, $expected, $name)
$got is the result to be checked. $expected is the structure against
which $got will be check. $name is the test name.
This is the main comparison function, the others are just wrappers
around this. Without any special comparisons, it will descend into
$expected, following every reference and comparing $expected_v to
$got_v (using "eq") at the same position. If at any stage $expected_v
is a special comparison then Test::Deep may do something else besides a
simple string comparison, exactly what it does depends on which special
comparison it is.
$ok = cmp_bag(\@got, \@bag, $name)
Is shorthand for cmp_deeply(\@got, bag(@bag), $name)
N.B. Both arguments must be array refs. If they aren't an error will be
raised via die.
$ok = cmp_set(\@got, \@set, $name)
Is shorthand for cmp_deeply(\@got, set(@set), $name)
$ok = cmp_methods(\@got, \@methods, $name)
Is shorthand for cmp_deeply(\@got, methods(@methods), $name)
$ok = eq_deeply($got, $expected)
This is the same as cmp_deeply() except it just returns true or false.
It does not create diagnostics or talk to Test::Builder, but if you
want to use it in a non-testing environment then you should import it
through Test::Deep::NoTest. For example
use Test::Deep::NoTest;
print "a equals b" unless eq_deeply($a, $b);
otherwise the Test::Builder framework will be loaded and testing mes‐
sages will be output when your program ends.
($ok, $stack) = cmp_details($got, $expected)
This behaves much like eq_deeply, but it additionally allows you to
produce diagnostics in case of failure by passing the value in $stack
to "deep_diag".
Do not make assumptions about the structure or content of $stack and do
not use it if $ok contains a true value.
See "USING TEST::DEEP WITH TEST::BUILDER" for example uses.
SPECIAL COMPARISONS PROVIDEDignore()
This makes Test::Deep skip tests on $got_v. No matter what value $got_v
has, Test::Deep will think it's correct. This is useful if some part of
the structure you are testing is very complicated and already tested
elsewhere, or is unpredictable.
cmp_deeply($got, { name => 'John', random => ignore(), address => ['5 A
street', 'a town', 'a country'],
})
is the equivalent of checking
$got->{name} eq 'John';
exists $got->{random};
cmp_deeply($got->{address};
['5 A street', 'a town', 'a country']);
methods(%hash)
%hash is a hash of method call => expected value pairs.
This lets you call methods on an object and check the result of each
call. The methods will be called in the order supplied. If you want to
pass arguments to the method you should wrap the method name and argu‐
ments in an array reference.
cmp_deeply(
$obj,
methods(name => "John", ["favourite", "food"] => "taco")
);
is roughly the equivalent of checking that
$obj->name eq "John"
$obj->favourite("food") eq "taco"
The methods will be called in the order you supply them and will be
called in scalar context. If you need to test methods called in list
context then you should use listmethods().
NOTE Just as in a normal test script, you need to be careful if the
methods you call have side effects like changing the object or other
objects in the structure. Although the order of the methods is fixed,
the order of some other tests is not so if $expected is
{
manager => methods(@manager_methods),
coder => methods(@coder_methods)
}
there is no way to know which if manager and coder will be tested
first. If the methods you are testing depend on and alter global vari‐
ables or if manager and coder are the same object then you may run into
problems.
listmethods(%hash)
%hash is a hash of method call => expected value pairs.
This is almost identical to methods() except the methods are called in
list context instead of scalar context. This means that the expected
values supplied must be an array reference.
cmp_deeply(
$obj,
listmethods(
name => "John",
["favourites", "food"] => ["Mapo tofu", "Gongbao chicken"]
)
);
is the equivalent of checking that
$obj->name eq "John"
cmp_deeply([$obj->favourites("food")], ["Mapo tofu", "Gongbao chicken"]);
The methods will be called in the order you supply them.
NOTE The same caveats apply as for methods().
shallow($thing)
$thing is a ref.
This prevents Test::Deep from looking inside $thing. It allows you to
check that $got_v and $thing are references to the same variable. So
my @a = @b = (1, 2, 3);
cmp_deeply(\@a, \@b);
will pass because @a and @b have the same elements however
cmp_deeply(\@a, shallow(\@b))
will fail because although \@a and \@b both contain "1, 2, 3" they are
references to different arrays.
noclass($thing)
$thing is a structure to be compared against.
This makes Test::Deep ignore the class of objects, so it just looks at
the data they contain. Class checking will be turned off until
Test::Deep is finished comparing $got_v against $thing. Once Test::Deep
comes out of $thing it will go back to it's previous setting for check‐
ing class.
This can be useful when you want to check that objects have been con‐
structed correctly but you don't want to write lots of "bless"es. If
@people is an array of Person objects then
cmp_deeply(\@people, noclass([
bless {name => 'John', phone => '555-5555'}, "Person",
bless {name => 'Anne', phone => '444-4444'}, "Person",
]));
can be replaced with
cmp_deeply(\@people, noclass([
{name => 'John', phone => '555-5555'},
{name => 'Anne', phone => '444-4444'}
]));
However, this is testing so you should also check that the objects are
blessed correctly. You could use a map to bless all those hashes or you
could do a second test like
cmp_deeply(\@people, array_each(isa("Person"));
useclass($thing)
This turns back on the class comparison while inside a noclass().
cmp_deeply(
$got,
noclass(
[
useclass( $object )
]
)
)
In this example the class of the array reference in $got is ignored but
the class of $object is checked, as is the class of everything inside
$object.
re($regexp, $capture_data, $flags)
$regexp is either a regular expression reference produced with
"qr/.../" or a string which will be used to construct a regular expres‐
sion.
$capture_data is optional and is used to check the strings captured by
an regex. This should can be an array ref or a Test::Deep comparator
that works on array refs.
$flags is an optional string which controls whether the regex runs as a
global match. If $flags is "g" then the regex will run as m/$regexp/g.
Without $capture_data, this simply compares $got_v with the regular
expression provided. So
cmp_deeply($got, [ re("ferg") ])
is the equivalent of
$got->[0] =~ /ferg/
With $capture_data
cmp_deeply($got, [re($regex, $capture_data])
is the equivalent of
my @data = $got->[0] =~ /$regex/;
cmp_deeply(\@data, $capture_data);
So you can do something simple like
cmp_deeply($got, re(qr/(\d\d)(\w\w)/, [25, "ab" ])
to check that (\d\d) was 25 and (\w\w) was "ab" but you can also use
Test::Deep objects to do more complex testing of the captured values
cmp_deeply("cat=2,dog=67,sheep=3,goat=2,dog=5",
re(qr/(\D+)=\d+,?/, set(qw( cat sheep dog )), "g"))
here, the regex will match the string and will capture the animal names
and check that they match the specified set, in this case it will fail,
complaining that "goat" is not in the set.
superhashof(\%hash)
This will check that the hash %$got is a "super-hash" of %hash. That is
that all the key and value pairs in %hash appear in %$got but %$got can
have extra ones also.
For example
cmp_deeply({a => 1, b => 2}, superhashof({a => 1}))
will pass but
cmp_deeply({a => 1, b => 2}, superhashof({a => 1, c => 3}))
will fail.
subhashof(\%hash)
This will check that the hash %$got is a "sub-hash" of %hash. That is
that all the key and value pairs in %$got also appear in %hash.
For example
cmp_deeply({a => 1}, subhashof({a => 1, b => 2}))
will pass but
cmp_deeply({a => 1, c => 3}, subhashof({a => 1, b => 2}))
will fail.
bag(@elements)
@elements is an array of elements.
This does a bag comparison, that is, it compares two arrays but ignores
the order of the elements so
cmp_deeply([1, 2, 2], bag(2, 2, 1))
will be a pass.
The object returned by bag() has an add() method.
my $bag = bag(1, 2, 3);
$bag->add(2, 3, 4);
will result in a bag containing 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4.
"NOTE" If you use certain special comparisons within a bag or set com‐
parison there is a danger that a test will fail when it should have
passed. It can only happen if two or more special comparisons in the
bag are competing to match elements. Consider this comparison
cmp_deeply(['furry', 'furball'], bag(re("^fur"), re("furb")))
There are two things that could happen, hopefully "re("^fur")" is
paired with "furry" and "re("^furb")" is paired with "furb" and every‐
thing is fine but it could happen that "re("^fur")" is paired with
"furball" and then "re("^furb")" cannot find a match and so the test
fails. Examples of other competing comparisons are "bag(1, 2, 2)" vs
"set(1, 2)" and "methods(m1 => "v1", m2 => "v2")" vs "methods(m1 =>
"v1")"
This problem is could be solved by using a slower and more complicated
algorithm for set and bag matching. Something for the future...
set(@elements)
@elements is an array of elements.
This does a set comparison, that is, it compares two arrays but ignores
the order of the elements and it ignores duplicate elements, so
cmp_deeply([1, 2, 2, 3], set(3, 2, 1, 1))
will be a pass.
The object returned by set() has an add() method.
my $set = set(1, 2);
$set->add(1, 3, 1);
will result in a set containing 1, 2, 3.
"NOTE" See the NOTE on the bag() comparison for some dangers in using
special comparisons inside set()
superbagof(@elements), subbagof(@elements), supersetof(@elements) and
subsetof(@elements)
@elements is an array of elements.
These do exactly what you'd expect them to do, so for example
cmp_deeply($data, subbagof(1, 1, 3, 4));
checks that @$data contains at most 2 "1"s, 1 "3" and 1 "4" and
cmp_deeply($data, supersetof(1, 1, 1, 4));
will check that @$data has at least one "1" and at least one "4".
These are just special cases of the Set and Bag comparisons so they
also give you an add() method and they also have the same limitations
when using special comparisons inside them (see the NOTE in the bag()
section).
all(@expecteds)
@expecteds is an array of expected structures.
This allows you to compare data against multiple expected results and
make sure each of them matches.
cmp_deeply($got, all(isa("Person"), methods(name => 'John')))
is equivalent to
$got->isa("Person")
$got->name eq 'John'
If either test fails then the whole thing is considered a fail. This is
a short-circuit test, the testing is stopped after the first failure,
although in the future it may complete all tests so that diagnostics
can be output for all failures. When reporting failure, the parts are
counted from 1.
Thanks to the magic of overloading, you can write
any( re("^wi"), all(isa("Person"), methods(name => 'John')) )
as
re("^wi") ⎪ isa("Person") & methods(name => 'John')
Note single ⎪ not double, as ⎪⎪ cannot be overloaded. This will only
work when there is a special comparison involved. If you write
"john" ⎪ "anne" ⎪ "robert"
Perl will turn this into
"{onort"
which is presumably not what you wanted. This is because Perl ⎪s them
together as strings before Test::Deep gets a chance to do any overload
tricks.
any(@expecteds)
@expecteds is an array of expected structures.
This can be used to compare data against multiple expected results and
make sure that at least one of them matches. This is a short-circuit
test so if a test passes then none of the tests after that will be
attempted.
You can also use overloading with ⎪ similarly to all().
isa($class), Isa($class)
$class is a class name.
This uses UNIVERSAL::isa() to check that $got_v is blessed into the
class $class.
NOTE: Isa() does exactly as documented here, but isa() is slightly dif‐
ferent. If isa() is called with 1 argument it falls through to Isa().
If isa() called with 2 arguments, it falls through to UNIVERSAL::isa.
This is to prevent breakage when you import isa() into a package that
is used as a class. Without this, anyone calling
"Class->isa($other_class)" would get the wrong answer. This is a hack
to patch over the fact that isa is exported by default.
array_each($thing)
$thing is a structure to be compared against.
<$got_v> must be an array reference. Each element of it will be com‐
pared to $thing. This is useful when you have an array of similar
things, for example objects of a known type and you don't want to have
to repeat the same test for each one.
my $common_tests = all(
isa("MyFile"),
methods(
handle => isa("IO::Handle")
filename => re("^/home/ted/tmp"),
)
);
cmp_deeply($got, array_each($common_tests));
is similar to
foreach my $got_v (@$got) {
cmp_deeply($got_v, $common_tests)
}
Except it will not explode is $got is not an array reference. It will
check that each of the objects in @$got is a MyFile and that each one
gives the correct results for it's methods.
You could go further, if for example there were 3 files and you knew
the size of each one you could do this
cmp_deeply(
$got,
all(
array_each($common_tests),
[
methods(size => 1000),
methods(size => 200),
methods(size => 20)
]
)
)
cmp_deeply($got, array_each($structure));
str($string)
$string is a string.
This will stringify $got_v and compare it to $string using "eq", even
if $got_v is a ref. It is useful for checking the stringified value of
an overloaded reference.
num($number, $tolerance)
$number is a number. $tolerance is an optional number.
This will add 0 to $got_v and check if it's numerically equal to $num‐
ber, even if $got_v is a ref. It is useful for checking the numerical
value of an overloaded reference. If $tolerance is supplied then this
will check that $got_v and $exp_v are less than $tolerance apart. This
is useful when comparing floating point numbers as rounding errors can
make it hard or impossible for $got_v to be exactly equal to $exp_v.
When $tolerance is supplied, the test passes if "abs($got_v - $exp_v)
<= $tolerance".
Note in Perl, ""12blah" == 12" because Perl will be smart and convert
"12blah" into 12. You may not want this. There was a strict mode but
that is now gone. A "lookslike s number" test will replace it soon.
Until then you can usually just use the string() comparison to be more
strict. This will work fine for almost all situations, however it will
not work when <$got_v> is an overloaded value who's string and numeri‐
cal values differ.
bool($value)
$value is anything you like but it's probably best to use 0 or 1
This will check that $got_v and $value have the same truth value, that
is they will give the same result when used in boolean context, like in
an if() statement.
code(\&subref)
\&subref is a reference to a subroutine which will be passed a single
argument, it then should return a true or false and possibly a string
This will pass $got_v to the subroutine which returns true or false to
indicate a pass or fail. Fails can be accompanied by a diagnostic
string which gives an explanation of why it's a fail.
sub check_name
{
my $name = shift;
if ($boss->likes($name))
{
return 1;
}
else
{
return (0, "the boss doesn't like your name");
}
}
cmp_deeply("Brian", code(\&check_name));
DIAGNOSTIC FUNCTIONS
my $reason = deep_diag($stack)
$stack is a value returned by cmp_details. Do not call this function
if cmp_details returned a true value for $ok.
deep_diag() returns a human readable string describing how the compari‐
son failed.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
You've written a module to handle people and their film interests. Say
you have a function that returns an array of people from a query, each
person is a hash with 2 keys: Name and Age and the array is sorted by
Name. You can do
cmp_deeply(
$result,
[
{Name => 'Anne', Age => 26},
{Name => "Bill", Age => 47}
{Name => 'John', Age => 25},
]
);
Soon after, your query function changes and all the results now have an
ID field. Now your test is failing again because you left out ID from
each of the hashes. The problem is that the IDs are generated by the
database and you have no way of knowing what each person's ID is. With
Test::Deep you can change your query to
cmp_deeply(
$result,
[
{Name => 'John', Age => 25, ID => ignore()},
{Name => 'Anne', Age => 26, ID => ignore()},
{Name => "Bill", Age => 47, ID => ignore()}
]
);
But your test still fails. Now, because you're using a database, you no
longer know what order the people will appear in. You could add a sort
into the database query but that could slow down your application.
Instead you can get Test::Deep to ignore the order of the array by
doing a bag comparison instead.
cmp_deeply(
$result,
bag(
{Name => 'John', Age => 25, ID => ignore()},
{Name => 'Anne', Age => 26, ID => ignore()},
{Name => "Bill", Age => 47, ID => ignore()}
)
);
Finally person gets even more complicated and includes a new field
called Movies, this is a list of movies that the person has seen
recently, again these movies could also come back in any order so we
need a bag inside our other bag comparison, giving us something like
cmp_deeply(
$result,
bag(
{Name => 'John', Age => 25, ID => ignore(), Movies => bag(...)},
{Name => 'Anne', Age => 26, ID => ignore(), Movies => bag(...)},
{Name => "Bill", Age => 47, ID => ignore(), Movies => bag(...)}
)
);
USING TEST::DEEP WITH TEST::BUILDER
Combining "cmp_details" and "test_diag" makes it possible to use
Test::Deep in your own test classes.
In a Test::Builder subclass, create a test method in the following
form:
sub behaves_ok {
my $self = shift;
my $expected = shift;
my $test_name = shift;
my $got = do_the_important_work_here();
my ($ok, $stack) = cmp_details($got, $expected);
unless ($Test->ok($ok, $test_name)) {
my $diag = deep_diag($stack);
$Test->diag($diag);
}
}
As the subclass defines a test class, not tests themselves, make sure
it uses Test::Deep::NoTest, not "Test::Deep" itself.
LIMITATIONS
Currently any CODE, GLOB or IO refs will be compared using shallow(),
which means only their memory addresses are compared.
BUGS
There is a bug in set and bag compare to do with competing SCs. It only
occurs when you put certain special comparisons inside bag or set com‐
parisons you don't need to worry about it. The full details are in the
bag() docs. It will be fixed in an upcoming version.
WHAT ARE SPECIAL COMPARISONS?
A special comparison (SC) is simply an object that inherits from
Test::Deep::Cmp. Whenever $expected_v is an SC then instead of checking
"$got_v eq $expected_v", we pass control over to the SC and let it do
it's thing.
Test::Deep exports lots of SC constructors, to make it easy for you to
use them in your test scripts. For example is "re("hello")" is just a
handy way of creating a Test::Deep::Regexp object that will match any
string containing "hello". So
cmp_deeply([ 'a', 'b', 'hello world'], ['a', 'b', re("^hello")]);
will check 'a' eq 'a', 'b' eq 'b' but when it comes to comparing 'hello
world' and "re("^hello")" it will see that $expected_v is an SC and so
will pass control to the Test::Deep::Regexp class by do something like
"$expected_v->descend($got_v)". The "descend()" method should just
return true or false.
This gives you enough to write your own SCs but I haven't documented
how diagnostics works because it's about to get an overhaul.
SEE ALSO
Test::More
MAINTAINER
Ricardo Signes <rjbs@cpan.org>
AUTHOR
Fergal Daly <fergal@esatclear.ie>, with thanks to Michael G Schwern for
Test::More's is_deeply function which inspired this.
Please do not bother Fergal Daly with bug reports. Send them to the
maintainer (above) or submit them at the request tracker.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2003, 2004 by Fergal Daly <fergal@esatclear.ie>.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html
perl v5.8.8 2013-04-13 Test::Deep(3)
