RSpec 2.7 and hash should have_key

Question

I'm trying to figure out why a very simple "does this hash have this key" spec I'm writing is failing. Going into my Ruby REPL I am trying the following...

[3] pry(main)> a_hash = {:a=>"A"}
=> {:a=>"A"}
[4] pry(main)> a_hash.should have_key :a
NoMethodError: undefined method `have_key' for main:Object
from (pry):4:in `<main>'
[5] pry(main)> a_hash.keys.length.should == 1
=> true
[8] pry(main)> a_hash.has_key? :a
=> true

The first test is obviously what I want to get working and the second test I'm running just to verify that RSpec is loaded in my REPL environment.

Answer 1

You can actually have RSpec matchers outside "it" blocks. You just need to include RSpec::Matchers.

[ ~/work/mobile_server (master)]$ irb
>> require 'rspec'
true
>> include RSpec::Matchers
Object < BasicObject
>> {a: 1}.should have_key(:a)
true

Answer 2

You need to actually do this inside an RSpec example, I don't think you can write that kind of code anywhere.

describe "" do
  it "has a key" do
     ...
  end
end