DEV Community

Gyowanny (Geo) Queiroz
Gyowanny (Geo) Queiroz

Posted on

2 2

Mock constants in Ruby tests

Here's a quick and dirty way to mock class constants in unit tests without using any gems.

Given this class:

module Query
   class Paginator
     PAGE_SIZE = 1000

     def paginate(page:)
         offset = if page > 1
           per_page * (page.to_i - 1)
         else
           0
         end
         Person.order(:created_at)
               .offset(offset)
               .limit(PAGE_SIZE)
     end
   end
end
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Given PAGE_SIZE is set to 1000 records, I think it's a bit of a lift to run a test with that much records so why not set the constant with a lower value in our tests?

module Query
   class PaginatorTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase
     setup do
        # We change the constant value
        Query::Paginator.send(:const_set, 'PAGE_SIZE', 1)
     end

     teardown do
       # We restore the original value to avoid issues with other tests
       Query::Paginator.send(:remove_const, "PAGE_SIZE")   
     end

     ...
   end
end
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

You can set and unset the constant value in the test case body as well.

Top comments (0)

Billboard image

The Next Generation Developer Platform

Coherence is the first Platform-as-a-Service you can control. Unlike "black-box" platforms that are opinionated about the infra you can deploy, Coherence is powered by CNC, the open-source IaC framework, which offers limitless customization.

Learn more

👋 Kindness is contagious

Please leave a ❤️ or a friendly comment on this post if you found it helpful!

Okay