rspec failing error: expected false to respond to `false?`

Question

I am running this portion of a test:

 describe Dictionary do    before do      @d = Dictionary.new    end      it 'can check whether a given keyword exists' do         @d.include?('fish').should be_false       end 

With this code:

class Dictionary   def initialize     @hash = {}   end     def add(new_entry)     new_entry.class == String ? @hash[new_entry] = nil : new_entry.each { |noun, definition| @hash[noun] = definition}       end     def entries     @hash    end     def keywords     @hash.keys   end    def include?(word)     if @hash.has_key?(word)       true     else        false     end    end  end  

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but my tests keep failing and saying this:

> 1) Dictionary can check whether a given keyword exists >      Failure/Error: @d.include?('fish').should be_false >        expected false to respond to `false?` 

I am confused at the error since it seems to be giving the correct answer. I would really appreciate if someone could take a few minutes to tell me what's wrong with my code. Thank you tons.

Answer 1

If you browse the RSpec Expectations 2.99 and RSpec Expectations 2.14 and search the section - Truthiness and existentialism, you will find

expect(actual).to be_true  # passes if actual is truthy (not nil or false) expect(actual).to be_false # passes if actual is falsy (nil or false) # ............... # ... 

But of you browse RSpec Expectations 3.0 , the above method names got changed to -

expect(actual).to be_truthy    # passes if actual is truthy (not nil or false) expect(actual).to be true      # passes if actual == true expect(actual).to be_falsey    # passes if actual is falsy (nil or false) # ........... #...... 

It seems you are in 3.0, and using the method which were exist prior to this version. Thus you were getting the error.

I put the code in my test.rb file as below :-

class Dictionary   def initialize     @hash = {}   end     def add(new_entry)     new_entry.class == String ? @hash[new_entry] = nil : new_entry.each { |noun, definition| @hash[noun] = definition}       end     def entries     @hash    end     def keywords     @hash.keys   end    def include?(word)     if @hash.has_key?(word)       true     else        false     end    end  end 

And my spec/test_spec.rb file is -

require_relative "../test.rb"  describe Dictionary do   before do     @d = Dictionary.new   end    it 'can check whether a given keyword exists' do     @d.include?('fish').should be_false   end end 

Now I am running the code from my console, and it works :

arup@linux-wzza:~/Ruby> rspec -v 2.14.8 arup@linux-wzza:~/Ruby> rspec spec .  Finished in 0.00169 seconds 1 example, 0 failures 

---

Now I am changing the code in my spec/test_spec.rb file :-

require_relative "../test.rb"  describe Dictionary do   before do     @d = Dictionary.new   end    it 'can check whether a given keyword exists' do     @d.include?('fish').should be_falsey   end end 

and again run the test :-

arup@linux-wzza:~/Ruby> rspec -v 2.14.8 arup@linux-wzza:~/Ruby> rspec spec F  Failures:    1) Dictionary can check whether a given keyword exists      Failure/Error: @d.include?('fish').should be_falsey      NoMethodError:        undefined method `falsey?' for false:FalseClass      # ./spec/test_spec.rb:9:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'  Finished in 0.00179 seconds 1 example, 1 failure  Failed examples:  rspec ./spec/test_spec.rb:8 # Dictionary can check whether a given keyword exists arup@linux-wzza:~/Ruby> 

---

Now, they also mentioned in the 3.0.0.beta1 / 2013-11-07 changelog

Rename be_true and be_false to be_truthy and be_falsey. (Sam Phippen)