Failure message to handle non-simple types

[Ir0nClad]

Assuming that there is a method called getItem that returns a reference to the object in the provided array:

assertThat( [{id: "1"}, {id: "2"}], allOf( hasItem( getItem("1") ), hasItem( getItem("9") ) ) );

Currently, an error message is provided:
Error: Expected: (an Array containing <[object Object]> and an Array containing null)
but: an Array containing null was [<[object Object]>,<[object Object]>]

I'm not sure that mx.utils.ObjectUtil::toString() is the correct fix here as the text is spread over multiple lines with appropriate indentions, but it would be nice to see something other than <[object Object]>.

The test case usage may be bad, but I would like to see something like <{id: "1"}> in stead of <[object Object]>

[drewbourne]

I agree it would be nice to have, however implementing it is non-trivial due to the number of edge cases. Yes Hamcrest could use something like ObjectUtil.toString() but as you mentioned its formatting is not appropriate, and it recursively descends into the objects adding each inner objects description to the string.

Instead I could write a similar function and limit the number of properties that are output to ~3 or some such, but the order of iterating over properties is non-determinate and so the likely identifying field(s) may not be output. I could make an assumption that if the object has an id or uid field then that should be output first and then a couple of others. However if there is neither of those fields then what? It is starting to sound very complicated. And a simple breakpoint at the failing test can tell you what the object is.

If you want to have a go at implementing such a feature then I will gladly take a look to include it into the library. Take a look at BaseDescription for where that output is generated.

My suggestion is to implement / add toString() on your objects. Something as simple as this assuming you're using anonymous Objects.

function _s(o:Object):Object {
    o.toString = function():String { return '{ id: "' + o.id + '" }'; }
    return o;
}

assertThat([_s({ id: "1" }), _s({ id: "2" })], hasItems(getItem("1"), getItem("9")));

Alternatively I usually implement toString() on Classes using asx.string.formatToString() which is a function to generate nice toString() output.