NAME

Test::MostlyLike - Relaxed checking of deep data structures.

SYNOPSYS

    my $got = [qw/foo bar baz/];

    mostly_like(
        $got,
        ['foo', qr/a/],
        "Deeply nested structure matches (mostly)"
    );

DESCRIPTION

A tool based on is_deeply from Test::More. This tool produces nearly identical diagnostics. This tool gives you extra control by letting you check only the parts of the structure you care about, ignoring the rest.

EXPORTS

$bool = mostly_like($got, $expect, $name)

Generates a single ok event with diagnostics to help you find any failures.

Got should be the data structure you want to test. $expect should be a data structure representing what you expect to see. Unlike is_deeply any keys in $got that do not exist in $expect will be ignored.

WHAT TO EXPECT

When an a blessed object is encountered in the $got structure, any fields listed in $expect will be called as methods on the $got object. See the object/direct element access section below for bypassing this.

Any keys or attributes in $got will be ignored unless the also exist in $expect

IGNORING THINGS YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT

    my $got    = { foo => 1, bar => 2 };
    my $expect = { foo => 1 };

    mostly_like($got, $expect, "Ignores 'bar'");

If you want to check that a value is not set:

    my $got    = { foo => 1, bar => 2 };
    my $expect = { foo => 1, bar => undef };

    mostly_like($got, $expect, "Will fail since 'bar' has a value");

EXACT MATCHES

    my $got    = 'foo';
    my $expect = 'foo';
    mostly_like($got, $expect, "Check a value directly");

Also works for deeply nested structures

    mostly_like(
        [
            {stuff => 'foo bar baz'},
        ],
        [
            {stuff => 'foo bar baz'},
        ],
        "Check a value directly, nested"
    );

REGEX MATCHES

    my $got    = 'foo bar baz';
    my $expect = qr/bar/;
    mostly_like($got, $expect, 'Match');

Works nested as well:

    mostly_like(
        [
            {stuff => 'foo bar baz'},
        ],
        [
            {stuff => qr/bar/},
        ],
        "Check a value directly, nested"
    );

ARRAY ELEMENT MATCHES

    my $got = [qw/foo bar baz/];
    my $exp = [qw/foo bar/];

    mostly_like($got, $exp, "Ignores unspecified indexes");

You can also just check specific indexes:

    my $got = [qw/foo bar baz/];
    my $exp = { ':1' => 'bar' };

    mostly_like($got, $exp, "Only checks array index 1");

When doing this the index must always be prefixed with ':'.

HASH ELEMENT MATCHES

    my $got = { foo => 1, bar => 2 };
    my $exp = { foo => 1 };

    mostly_like($got, $exp, "Only checks foo");

OBJECT METHOD MATCHES

UNALTERED

    sub foo { $_[0]->{foo} }

    my $got = bless {foo => 1}, __PACKAGE__;
    my $exp = { foo => 1 };

    mostly_like($got, $exp, 'Checks the return of $got->foo()');

WRAPPED

Sometimes methods return lists, in such cases you can wrap them in arrayrefs or hashrefs:

    sub list { qw/foo bar baz/ }
    sub dict { foo => 0, bar => 1, baz => 2 }

    my $got = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
    my $exp = {
        '[list]' => [ qw/foo bar baz/ ],
        '[dict]' => { foo => 0, bar => 1, baz => 2 },
    };
    mostly_like($got, $exp, "Wrapped the method calls");

DIRECT ELEMENT ACCESS

Sometimes you want to ignore the methods and get the hash value directly.

    sub foo { die "do not call me" }

    my $got = bless { foo => 'secret' }, __PACKAGE__;
    my $exp = { ':foo' => 'secret' };

    mostly_like($got, $exp, "Did not call the fatal method");

SOURCE

The source code repository for Test::More can be found at http://github.com/Test-More/test-more/.

MAINTAINER

Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>

AUTHORS

The following people have all contributed to the Test-More dist (sorted using VIM's sort function).

Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>

Fergal Daly <fergal@esatclear.ie>>

Mark Fowler <mark@twoshortplanks.com>

Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>

唐鳳

COPYRIGHT

There has been a lot of code migration between modules, here are all the original copyrights together:

Test::Stream

Test::Stream::Tester

Test::MostlyLike

Copyright 2014 Chad Granum <exodist7@gmail.com>.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

Test::Simple

Test::More

Test::Builder

Originally authored by Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com> with much inspiration from Joshua Pritikin's Test module and lots of help from Barrie Slaymaker, Tony Bowden, blackstar.co.uk, chromatic, Fergal Daly and the perl-qa gang.

Idea by Tony Bowden and Paul Johnson, code by Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>, wardrobe by Calvin Klein.

Copyright 2001-2008 by Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

Test::use::ok

To the extent possible under law, 唐鳳 has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Test-use-ok.

This work is published from Taiwan.

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0

Test::Tester

This module is copyright 2005 Fergal Daly <fergal@esatclear.ie>, some parts are based on other people's work.

Under the same license as Perl itself

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

Test::Builder::Tester

Copyright Mark Fowler <mark@twoshortplanks.com> 2002, 2004.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

cpanm Test::Simple

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Test::Simple