Writing Tests

Overview

Pest makes it easy to write tests. This section illustrates how to write a simple test suite with Pest, and what are the conventions you should use.

The setup is very simple, and usually looks like this:

1tests
2    - Unit/ComponentTest.php <--
3    - Feature/HomeTest.php <--
4phpunit.xml

To write a test, create a file in the Unit or Feature directory, and make sure its filename ends with the ...Test.php suffix. Then, all you need inside this file is a function that runs your test:

1<?php
2test('has home', function () {
3    // ..
4});
5 
6// or
7it('has home', function () {
8    // ..
9});

Note: Pest will only run a test file if its name ends with the suffix set in your phpunit.xml.

API Reference

Now, on to the API reference. Pest offers you two functions to write your tests: test() & it(). Use the one that best fits your test naming convention, or both. They share the same behavior & syntax:

test()

The test function adds the given closure as test. The first argument is the test description; the second argument is a closure that contains the test expectations:

1test('asserts true is true', function () {
2    $this->assertTrue(true);
3 
4    expect(true)->toBeTrue();
5});

Here is what this example test will return:

1✓ asserts true is true

it()

The it function adds the given closure as test. The first argument is the test description; the second argument is a closure that contains the test expectations:

1it('asserts true is true', function () {
2    $this->assertTrue(true);
3 
4    expect(true)->toBeTrue();
5});

Here is what this example test will return:

1✓ it asserts true is true

Note: Notice how, when using the it function, your test name gets prepended with 'it' in the returned description.

Next section: Underlying Test Case →