mockito better expected exception test using spy

Question

How can I make the 3rd test to check for the existence of cause1 in the message of the exception? I also listed in the first two tests that have drawbacks. First is not checking for the message second needs a lot of boilerplate code.

public class CheckExceptionsWithMockitoTest {

    @Test(expected = RuntimeException.class)
    public void testExpectedException1() {
        A a = new A();
        a.doSomethingThatThrows();
    }

    @Test
    public void testExpectedException2() {
        A a = new A();
        try {
            a.doSomethingThatThrows();
            fail("no exception thrown");
        } catch (RuntimeException e) {
            assertThat(e.getMessage(), org.hamcrest.Matchers.containsString("cause1"));
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void testExpectedException3() {
        A a = new A();
        A spyA = org.mockito.Mockito.spy(a);
        // valid but doesnt work
        // doThrow(new IllegalArgumentException()).when(spyA).doSomethingThatThrows();
        // invalid but in the spirit of what i want 
        //chekThrow(RuntimeException.class,containsString("cause1")).when(spyA).doSomethingThatThrows();
    }

}

I couldn't find in Mockito something that works but there is something that looks like could be possible (at the level of syntax) and capabilities.

---

Using catchexception I created the test like this

import static com.googlecode.catchexception.CatchException.*;
import static com.googlecode.catchexception.apis.CatchExceptionHamcrestMatchers.*;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*;
import static org.junit.Assert.*;

import org.junit.*;
public class CheckExceptionsWithMockitoTest{  
    //...
    @Test
    public void testExpectedException3() {
        A a = new A();
        verifyException(a,IllegalArgumentException.class)
            .doSomethingThatThrows();
        //if more details to be analized are needed
        assertThat(
            (IllegalStateException) caughtException(),
            allOf(
                is(IllegalStateException.class),
                hasMessageThat(
                        containsString("is not allowed to add counterparties")), 
                hasNoCause()));
        //more asserts could come
        assertNotNull(a);
    }
}

Answer 1

Use catch-exception library, or I guess that the solution you are looking for is your second implementation.

@expected doesn't provide any way to assert on the thrown exception except for its class, so you can't avoit try/catching (not that much boiler plate code !)

Mockito doesn't provide something likes a verifyThrows method.

So you can trade try/catching for an additional library : using catch-exception, you'll be able to catch exception in a single line and have it ready for further assertion(s).

Sample source code

A a = new A();

when(a).doSomethingThatThrows();

then(caughtException())
        .isInstanceOf(IllegalStateException.class)
        .hasMessageContaining("is not allowed to add counterparties")
        .hasNoCause();

Dependencies

'com.googlecode.catch-exception:catch-exception:1.2.0'