How can I use jasmine.js to test for console output?

Question

I'm working through the text: Professional JavaScript for Web Developers by Nicholas Zakas and I'm testing the examples with Jasmine.js.

I can currently test the output of a function by specifying a return a value, but I'm running into trouble when there are multiple pieces of data that I want to return.

The textbook uses the alert() method, but this is cumbersome and I don't know how to test for alerts. I was wondering if there was a way to test for console.log() output. For instance:

function_to_test = function(){
    var person = new Object();
    person.name = "Nicholas";
    person.age = 29;

    return(person.name);    //Nicholas
    return(person.age);     //29
});

I know I can have them return as one string, but for more complicated examples I'd like to be able to test the following:

function_to_test = function(){
    var person = new Object();
    person.name = "Nicholas";
    person.age = 29;

    console.log(person.name);    //Nicholas
    console.log(person.age);     //29
});

The Jasmine test looks something like:

it("should test for the function_to_test's console output", function(){
    expect(function_to_test()).toEqual("console_output_Im_testing_for");
});

Is there a simple way to do this that I'm just missing? I'm pretty new to coding so any guidance would be appreciated.

Answer 1

There are a couple of things that are wrong with your code above. As pointed out, having multiple return statement will not work. Also, when defining a new object, it is preferable to use the object literal syntax over using new Object.

What you would normally do is something more like this:

var function_to_test = function () {
  var person = {
    name : "Nicholas",
    age : 29
  };

  return person;
};

Using the function above, there are a couple of ways you could test this. One it to mock out the console.log object using Jasmine Spies.

it("should test for the function_to_test's console output", function () {
    console.log = jasmine.createSpy("log");
    var person = function_to_test();
    expect(console.log).toHaveBeenCalledWith(person);
});

The other is to test the actual output of the function.

it("should return a person", function () {
    var person = function_to_test();
    expect(person).toEqual({ name : "Nicholas", age : 29 });
});