assertEquals in scalatest

Question

I'd like to use something similar to jUnit's assertEquals in scalatest.

Does the framework implement it or it does just provide assert and I should use assertEquals from jUnit itself?

Answer 1

There's the 'assert' approach such as

class EqualsTest extends FunSuite {
  test("equals") {
    assert(1 === 1)
    assert(2 === 2, "The reason is obvious")
  }
}

Note the use of triple-equals, which gives much better error messages than double-equals when the test fails. Also, the second case provides a hint to be printed if the test fails. It's best to use this for including some data value that would not otherwise be obvious, e.g. a loop count if testing using a loop.

Then there's the ShouldMatchers approach such as

class EqualsTest extends FunSuite with ShouldMatchers {
  test("equals") {
    1 should be (1)
  }
}

This is often preferred because it reads easily. However, learning to use it is just a bit harder - there are some nooks and crannies in the API. And you can't put in a hint explanation.