How does one write a unittest that fails only if a function doesn’t throw an expected exception?

Use (or TestCase.failUnlessRaises) from the unittest module, for example:

import mymod

class MyTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
    def test1(self):
        self.assertRaises(SomeCoolException, mymod.myfunc)

Since Python 2.7 you can use context manager to get ahold of the actual Exception object thrown:

import unittest

def broken_function():
    raise Exception('This is broken')

class MyTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
    def test(self):
        with self.assertRaises(Exception) as context:
            broken_function()

        self.assertTrue('This is broken' in context.exception)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

http://docs.python.org/dev/library/unittest.html#unittest.TestCase.assertRaises

In Python 3.5, you have to wrap context.exception in str, otherwise you’ll get a TypeError

self.assertTrue('This is broken' in str(context.exception))

The code in my previous answer can be simplified to:

def test_afunction_throws_exception(self):
    self.assertRaises(ExpectedException, afunction)

And if afunction takes arguments, just pass them into assertRaises like this:

def test_afunction_throws_exception(self):
    self.assertRaises(ExpectedException, afunction, arg1, arg2)

How do you test that a Python function throws an exception?

How does one write a test that fails only if a function doesn’t throw an expected exception?

Short Answer:

Use the self.assertRaises method as a context manager:

    def test_1_cannot_add_int_and_str(self):
        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
            1 + '1'

Demonstration

The best practice approach is fairly easy to demonstrate in a Python shell.

The unittest library

In Python 2.7 or 3:

import unittest

In Python 2.6, you can install a backport of 2.7’s unittest library, called unittest2, and just alias that as unittest:

import unittest2 as unittest

Example tests

Now, paste into your Python shell the following test of Python’s type-safety:

class MyTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_1_cannot_add_int_and_str(self):
        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
            1 + '1'
    def test_2_cannot_add_int_and_str(self):
        import operator
        self.assertRaises(TypeError, operator.add, 1, '1')

Test one uses assertRaises as a context manager, which ensures that the error is properly caught and cleaned up, while recorded.

We could also write it without the context manager, see test two. The first argument would be the error type you expect to raise, the second argument, the function you are testing, and the remaining args and keyword args will be passed to that function.

I think it’s far more simple, readable, and maintainable to just to use the context manager.

Running the tests

To run the tests:

unittest.main(exit=False)

In Python 2.6, you’ll probably need the following:

unittest.TextTestRunner().run(unittest.TestLoader().loadTestsFromTestCase(MyTestCase))

And your terminal should output the following:

..
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 2 tests in 0.007s

OK
<unittest2.runner.TextTestResult run=2 errors=0 failures=0>

And we see that as we expect, attempting to add a 1 and a '1' result in a TypeError.

For more verbose output, try this:

unittest.TextTestRunner(verbosity=2).run(unittest.TestLoader().loadTestsFromTestCase(MyTestCase))

Your code should follow this pattern (this is a unittest module style test):

def test_afunction_throws_exception(self):
    try:
        afunction()
    except ExpectedException:
        pass
    except Exception:
       self.fail('unexpected exception raised')
    else:
       self.fail('ExpectedException not raised')

On Python < 2.7 this construct is useful for checking for specific values in the expected exception. The unittest function assertRaises only checks if an exception was raised.

from: http://www.lengrand.fr/2011/12/pythonunittest-assertraises-raises-error/

First, here is the corresponding (still dum :p) function in file dum_function.py :

def square_value(a):
   """
   Returns the square value of a.
   """
   try:
       out = a*a
   except TypeError:
       raise TypeError("Input should be a string:")

   return out

Here is the test to be performed (only this test is inserted):

import dum_function as df # import function module
import unittest
class Test(unittest.TestCase):
   """
      The class inherits from unittest
      """
   def setUp(self):
       """
       This method is called before each test
       """
       self.false_int = "A"

   def tearDown(self):
       """
       This method is called after each test
       """
       pass
      #---
         ## TESTS
   def test_square_value(self):
       # assertRaises(excClass, callableObj) prototype
       self.assertRaises(TypeError, df.square_value(self.false_int))

   if __name__ == "__main__":
       unittest.main()

We are now ready to test our function! Here is what happens when trying to run the test :

======================================================================
ERROR: test_square_value (__main__.Test)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test_dum_function.py", line 22, in test_square_value
    self.assertRaises(TypeError, df.square_value(self.false_int))
  File "/home/jlengrand/Desktop/function.py", line 8, in square_value
    raise TypeError("Input should be a string:")
TypeError: Input should be a string:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.000s

FAILED (errors=1)

The TypeError is actullay raised, and generates a test failure. The problem is that this is exactly the behavior we wanted :s.

To avoid this error, simply run the function using lambda in the test call :

self.assertRaises(TypeError, lambda: df.square_value(self.false_int))

The final output :

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.000s

OK

Perfect !

… and for me is perfect too!!

Thansk a lot Mr. Julien Lengrand-Lambert

This test assert actually returns a false positive. That happens because the lambda inside the ‘assertRaises’ is the unit that raises type error and not the tested function.

You can build your own contextmanager to check if the exception was raised.

import contextlib

@contextlib.contextmanager
def raises(exception):
    try:
        yield 
    except exception as e:
        assert True
    else:
        assert False

And then you can use raises like this:

with raises(Exception):
    print "Hola"  # Calls assert False

with raises(Exception):
    raise Exception  # Calls assert True

If you are using pytest, this thing is implemented already. You can do pytest.raises(Exception):

Example:

def test_div_zero():
    with pytest.raises(ZeroDivisionError):
        1/0

And the result:

pigueiras@pigueiras$ py.test
================= test session starts =================
platform linux2 -- Python 2.6.6 -- py-1.4.20 -- pytest-2.5.2 -- /usr/bin/python
collected 1 items 

tests/test_div_zero.py:6: test_div_zero PASSED

I use doctest[1] almost everywhere because I like the fact that I document and test my functions at the same time.

Have a look at this code:

def throw_up(something, gowrong=False):
    """
    >>> throw_up('Fish n Chips')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
    Exception: Fish n Chips

    >>> throw_up('Fish n Chips', gowrong=True)
    'I feel fine!'
    """
    if gowrong:
        return "I feel fine!"
    raise Exception(something)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import doctest
    doctest.testmod()

If you put this example in a module and run it from the command line both test cases are evaluated and checked.

[1] Python documentation: 23.2 doctest — Test interactive Python examples

I just discovered that the Mock library provides an assertRaisesWithMessage() method (in its unittest.TestCase subclass), which will check not only that the expected exception is raised, but also that it is raised with the expected message:

from testcase import TestCase

import mymod

class MyTestCase(TestCase):
    def test1(self):
        self.assertRaisesWithMessage(SomeCoolException,
                                     'expected message',
                                     mymod.myfunc)

There are a lot of answers here. The code shows how we can create an Exception, how we can use that exception in our methods, and finally, how you can verify in a unit test, the correct exceptions being raised.

import unittest

class DeviceException(Exception):
    def __init__(self, msg, code):
        self.msg = msg
        self.code = code
    def __str__(self):
        return repr("Error {}: {}".format(self.code, self.msg))

class MyDevice(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.name = 'DefaultName'

    def setParameter(self, param, value):
        if isinstance(value, str):
            setattr(self, param , value)
        else:
            raise DeviceException('Incorrect type of argument passed. Name expects a string', 100001)

    def getParameter(self, param):
        return getattr(self, param)

class TestMyDevice(unittest.TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.dev1 = MyDevice()

    def tearDown(self):
        del self.dev1

    def test_name(self):
        """ Test for valid input for name parameter """

        self.dev1.setParameter('name', 'MyDevice')
        name = self.dev1.getParameter('name')
        self.assertEqual(name, 'MyDevice')

    def test_invalid_name(self):
        """ Test to check if error is raised if invalid type of input is provided """

        self.assertRaises(DeviceException, self.dev1.setParameter, 'name', 1234)

    def test_exception_message(self):
        """ Test to check if correct exception message and code is raised when incorrect value is passed """

        with self.assertRaises(DeviceException) as cm:
            self.dev1.setParameter('name', 1234)
        self.assertEqual(cm.exception.msg, 'Incorrect type of argument passed. Name expects a string', 'mismatch in expected error message')
        self.assertEqual(cm.exception.code, 100001, 'mismatch in expected error code')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

You can use assertRaises from the unittest module

import unittest

class TestClass():
  def raises_exception(self):
    raise Exception("test")

class MyTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
  def test_if_method_raises_correct_exception(self):
    test_class = TestClass()
    # note that you dont use () when passing the method to assertRaises
    self.assertRaises(Exception, test_class.raises_exception)

While all the answers are perfectly fine, I was looking for a way to test if a function raised an exception without relying on unit testing frameworks and having to write test classes.

I ended up writing the following:

def assert_error(e, x):
    try:
        e(x)
    except:
        return
    raise AssertionError()

def failing_function(x):
    raise ValueError()

def dummy_function(x):
    return x

if __name__=="__main__":
    assert_error(failing_function, 0)
    assert_error(dummy_function, 0)

And it fails on the right line :

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "assert_error.py", line 16, in <module>
    assert_error(dummy_function, 0)
  File "assert_error.py", line 6, in assert_error
    raise AssertionError()
AssertionError