PHPSpec Catching TypeError in PHP7

Question

I want test an example method with scalar type hinting and strict types in PHP7. When I don't pass an argument, the method should throw a TypeError. PHPSpec return fatal error:

Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to Example::test

<?php

class Example
{
    public function test(string $name)
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }
}


class ExampleSpec extends ObjectBehavior
{
    function it_is_initializable()
    {
        $this->shouldHaveType('Test\Example');
    }

    function it_check_test_method_when_not_pass_argument()
    {
        $this->shouldThrow('\TypeError')->during('test');
    }
}

At the beginning I declare: declare(strict_types=1);

What is wrong? How do I test throwing TypeError?

Answer 1

For me it works if I annotate the unit test with this:

/**
 * @expectedException \TypeError
 */

Then my test is green.

Answer 2

Upon further investigation, this is a PHPSpec bug, and has been reported here. The bug hasn't been fixed in several months, so I would suggest commenting on it.

If you look at the code in src/PhpSpec/Matcher/ThrowMatcher.php, you can see that PHPSpec catches Exceptions that inherit 'Exception' and then checks the instance type of that exception. But, TypeError doesn't inherit from Exception, it inherits from Error. The only thing it has in common with an Exception, is that they both implement the Throwable interface.

For example:

101     public function verifyPositive($callable, array $arguments, $exception = null)
102     {
103         try {
104             call_user_func_array($callable, $arguments);
105         } catch (\Exception $e) {
106             if (null === $exception) {
107                 return;
108             }
109
110             if (!$e instanceof $exception) {
111                 throw new FailureException(sprintf(
112                     'Expected exception of class %s, but got %s.',
113                     $this->presenter->presentValue($exception),
114                     $this->presenter->presentValue($e)
115                 ));
116             }

Report the bug, explain these details, and show them this documentation about the inheritance of TypeError.