Why pending only works inside it

Testing RSpec
1

I wrote following code and it did not work.

describe User do
it { should validate_presence_of(:email) }
pending “should raise an error when email is blank and record is
saved with false option”
end

Then I put pending inside it like one given below and it worked.

describe User do
it { should validate_presence_of(:email) }
it “” do
pending “should raise an error when email is blank and record is
saved with false option”
end
end

I know that rspec is well thought out . Then why rspec is forcing me
to put empty it around pending line. Why can’t I just say that
something is pending and I will get to it later.

Thanks for all the good work.

2

You can use an empty block instead:

===begin Ruby
describe Apple do
it “should be delicious” do
# real test
end

it “should be crunchy” # still pending
end
===end Ruby

Then you’ll get:

===begin shell
Apple

  • should be delicious
  • should be crunchy (PENDING: Not Yet Implemented)
    ===end shell

Hope that helps.

John F.
Principal Consultant, Distilled Brilliance

3

On May 26, 2010, at 2:07 PM, Nadal wrote:

Then I put pending inside it like one given below and it worked.

describe User do
it { should validate_presence_of(:email) }
it “” do
pending “should raise an error when email is blank and record is
saved with false option”
end
end

Use an it with no block:

it “should raise an error when email is blank and record is saved with
false option”

Scott

4

Thanks. That got me moving.

I like how in rspec I can say context when I mean context and describe
when I mean describe. Going by that principal here I should have been
allowed to say pending when I mean pending and I should not be forced
to use it which would come in report as pending.

It is nitpicking but paying attention to such detail has made rspec so
great. Just a fresh perspective since I am trying out rspec for the
first time.

5

On May 26, 2010, at 3:04 PM, Nadal wrote:

Thanks. That got me moving.

I like how in rspec I can say context when I mean context and describe
when I mean describe. Going by that principal here I should have been
allowed to say pending when I mean pending and I should not be forced
to use it which would come in report as pending.

It is nitpicking but paying attention to such detail has made rspec so
great. Just a fresh perspective since I am trying out rspec for the
first time.

In rspec-2 you can say pending like this:

describe ‘something’ do
context ‘in some context’ do
pending ‘it does something or other’

6

awesome. That’s much better.