How can I have dynamic expect in a conditional test?

[thespags]

Preface, I'm not a fan of doing this, but I need to support others who are trying to have clean code.

runTest(checkMock bool) {
...
if checkMock {
   		someMock.EXPECT().DoSomething().Return(nil)
}
...
}

Is there a way to cleanly get
someMock.EXEPCT().DoSomething().Times(value)
where value can be 0 or 1? I don't seem to be able to get the 0 case to work.

[official-burak]

Times(0) is not "never" on testify/mock (including mockery EXPECT()). Repeatability starts at 0, which means "must be called, no cap". Times(0) writes that same value, so the 0 case still fails as a missing call.

0 or 1:

someMock.EXPECT().DoSomething().Return(nil).Maybe()

Exactly 0: skip the expectation, then assert it stayed quiet.

if checkMock {
    someMock.EXPECT().DoSomething().Return(nil).Once()
} else {
    defer someMock.AssertNotCalled(t, "DoSomething")
}

If the mock is uber-go/mock, Times(0) does mean never. That API is not this repo.

[thespags]

Thanks. I'm more familiar with Java's Mockito, where times(0) also means never.
I wouldn't expect times(0) to mean any.

It's an interesting design choice, I'm curious the rationale. Quick looking at other libraries, shows times(0) equivalent to never is common if not ubiquitous.

[brackendawson]

It's a mistake. The .Times() builder method was added later and sets a value on the Call object. The zero value was used to indicate that Times was not called and the original behavior be followed. A simple count value on the Call object was the wrong choice. But it's far too late to correct the behavior of .Times(0) at this point.

We should however update the doc:

Times indicates that the mock should only return the indicated number of times.

[brackendawson]

I've opened #1947