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unit-testingioelixirdoctestex-unit

Is there a way to test an IO output using Doctest in Elixir?


I'm totally ok with writing a "normal" test capturing the IO for this.

Would just like to know if it is possible to use Doctest.

An example would be:

defmodule CLI do

  @doc """
  Politely says Hello.

  ## Examples

      iex> CLI.main([])
      "Hello dear person." # this would be the expected IO output
  """
  def main(args) do
    IO.puts "Hello dear person."
  end
end

defmodule CLITest do
  use ExUnit.Case
  doctest CLI
end

Solution

  • You can use the same function as you'd use in a normal test: ExUnit.CaptureIO.capture_io. This might not be a function suited for doctests though when you add more functionality to the function.

    defmodule CLI do
      @doc """
      Politely says Hello.
    
      ## Examples
    
          iex> import ExUnit.CaptureIO
          iex> capture_io(fn -> CLI.main([]) end)
          "Hello dear person.\\n"
      """
      def main(args) do
        IO.puts "Hello dear person."
      end
    end
    
    $ mix test
    .
    
    Finished in 0.03 seconds
    1 test, 0 failures