describe vs context in rspec. Differences?

Question

I've read a little bit about how one should organize rspec code. It seems like "context" is used more for states of objects. In your words, how would you describe how to use "describe" in rspec code?

Here is a snippet of my movie_spec.rb code:

require_relative 'movie'

describe Movie do

    before do
        @initial_rank = 10
        @movie = Movie.new("goonies", @initial_rank)
    end


    it "has a capitalied title" do
        expect(@movie.title) == "Goonies"
    end


    it "has a string representation" do
        expect(@movie.to_s).to eq("Goonies has a rank of 10")
    end

    it "decreases rank by 1 when given a thumbs down" do
        @movie.thumbs_down
        expect(@movie.rank).to eq(@initial_rank - 1)
    end

    it "increases rank by 1 when given a thumbs up" do
        @movie.thumbs_up
        expect(@movie.rank).to eq(@initial_rank + 1)
    end

    context "created with a default rank" do
        before do
            @movie = Movie.new("goonies")
        end

        it "has a rank of 0" do
            expect(@movie.rank).to eq(5)
        end
    end

Answer 1

There is not much difference between describe and context. The difference lies in readability. I tend to use context when I want to separate specs based on conditions. I use describe to separate methods being tested or behavior being tested.

One main thing that changed in the latest RSpec is that "context" can no longer be used as a top-level method.