How to check if collection contains items in given order using Hamcrest

Question

How to check using Hamcrest if given collection is containing given items in given order? I tried hasItems but it simply ignores the order.

List<String> list = Arrays.asList("foo", "bar", "boo");  assertThat(list, hasItems("foo", "boo"));  //I want this to fail, because the order is different than in "list" assertThat(list, hasItems("boo", "foo"));  

Answer 1

You can use contains matcher instead, but you probably need to use latest version of Hamcrest. That method checks the order.

assertThat(list, contains("foo", "boo")); 

You can also try using containsInAnyOrder if order does not matter to you.

That's the code for contains matcher:

  public static <E> Matcher<Iterable<? extends E>> contains(List<Matcher<? super E>> itemMatchers)   {     return IsIterableContainingInOrder.contains(itemMatchers);   } 

Answer 2

To check tha collection contains items in expected (given) order you can use Hamcrest's containsInRelativeOrder method.

From javadoc:

Creates a matcher for Iterable's that matches when a single pass over the examined Iterable yields a series of items, that contains items logically equal to the corresponding item in the specified items, in the same relative order For example: assertThat(Arrays.asList("a", "b", "c", "d", "e"), containsInRelativeOrder("b", "d")).

Actual for Java Hamcrest 2.0.0.0.

Hope this helps.