How do you assert that a certain exception is thrown in JUnit tests?

It depends on the JUnit version and what assert libraries you use.

• For JUnit5 and 4.13 see answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/2935935/2986984
• If you use assertJ or google-truth, see answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/41019785/2986984

The original answer for JUnit <= 4.12 was:

@Test(expected = IndexOutOfBoundsException.class)
public void testIndexOutOfBoundsException() {

    ArrayList emptyList = new ArrayList();
    Object o = emptyList.get(0);

}

Though answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/31826781/2986984 has more options for JUnit <= 4.12.

Reference :

• JUnit Test-FAQ

Be careful using expected exception, because it only asserts that the method threw that exception, not a particular line of code in the test.

I tend to use this for testing parameter validation, because such methods are usually very simple, but more complex tests might better be served with:

try {
    methodThatShouldThrow();
    fail( "My method didn't throw when I expected it to" );
} catch (MyException expectedException) {
}

Apply judgement.

Now that JUnit 5 and JUnit 4.13 have been released, the best option would be to use Assertions.assertThrows() (for JUnit 5) and Assert.assertThrows() (for JUnit 4.13). See the JUnit 5 User Guide.

Here is an example that verifies an exception is thrown, and uses Truth to make assertions on the exception message:

public class FooTest {
  @Test
  public void doStuffThrowsIndexOutOfBoundsException() {
    Foo foo = new Foo();

    IndexOutOfBoundsException e = assertThrows(
        IndexOutOfBoundsException.class, foo::doStuff);

    assertThat(e).hasMessageThat().contains("woops!");
  }
}

The advantages over the approaches in the other answers are:

1. Built into JUnit
2. You get a useful exception message if the code in the lambda doesn't throw an exception, and a stacktrace if it throws a different exception
3. Concise
4. Allows your tests to follow Arrange-Act-Assert
5. You can precisely indicate what code you are expecting to throw the exception
6. You don't need to list the expected exception in the throws clause
7. You can use the assertion framework of your choice to make assertions about the caught exception

How about this: catch a very general exception, make sure it makes it out of the catch block, then assert that the class of the exception is what you expect it to be. This assert will fail if a) the exception is of the wrong type (eg. if you got a Null Pointer instead) and b) the exception wasn't ever thrown.

public void testFooThrowsIndexOutOfBoundsException() {
  Throwable e = null;

  try {
    foo.doStuff();
  } catch (Throwable ex) {
    e = ex;
  }

  assertTrue(e instanceof IndexOutOfBoundsException);
}

BDD Style Solution: JUnit 4 + Catch Exception + AssertJ

import static com.googlecode.catchexception.apis.BDDCatchException.*;

@Test
public void testFooThrowsIndexOutOfBoundsException() {

    when(() -> foo.doStuff());

    then(caughtException()).isInstanceOf(IndexOutOfBoundsException.class);

}

Dependencies

eu.codearte.catch-exception:catch-exception:2.0

The most flexible and elegant answer for Junit 4 I found in the Mkyong blog. It has the flexibility of the try/catch using the @Rule annotation. I like this approach because you can read specific attributes of a customized exception.

package com.mkyong;

import com.mkyong.examples.CustomerService;
import com.mkyong.examples.exception.NameNotFoundException;
import org.junit.Rule;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.rules.ExpectedException;

import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.containsString;
import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.is;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasProperty;

public class Exception3Test {

    @Rule
    public ExpectedException thrown = ExpectedException.none();

    @Test
    public void testNameNotFoundException() throws NameNotFoundException {

        //test specific type of exception
        thrown.expect(NameNotFoundException.class);

        //test message
        thrown.expectMessage(is("Name is empty!"));

        //test detail
        thrown.expect(hasProperty("errCode"));  //make sure getters n setters are defined.
        thrown.expect(hasProperty("errCode", is(666)));

        CustomerService cust = new CustomerService();
        cust.findByName("");

    }

}

JUnit has built-in support for this, with an "expected" attribute.

I recomend library assertj-core to handle exception in junit test

In java 8, like this:

//given

//when
Throwable throwable = catchThrowable(() -> anyService.anyMethod(object));

//then
AnyException anyException = (AnyException) throwable;
assertThat(anyException.getMessage()).isEqualTo("........");
assertThat(exception.getCode()).isEqualTo(".......);

JUnit framework has assertThrows() method:

ArithmeticException exception = assertThrows(ArithmeticException.class, () ->
    calculator.divide(1, 0));
assertEquals("/ by zero", exception.getMessage());

• for JUnit 5 it's in org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions class;
• for JUnit 4.13 it's in org.junit.Assert class;
• for earlier versions of JUnit 4: just add reference on org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-api to your project and you'll get perfectly well working version from JUnit 5.

With Java 8 you can create a method taking a code to check and expected exception as parameters:

private void expectException(Runnable r, Class<?> clazz) { 
    try {
      r.run();
      fail("Expected: " + clazz.getSimpleName() + " but not thrown");
    } catch (Exception e) {
      if (!clazz.isInstance(e)) fail("Expected: " + clazz.getSimpleName() + " but " + e.getClass().getSimpleName() + " found", e);
    }
  }

and then inside your test:

expectException(() -> list.sublist(0, 2).get(2), IndexOutOfBoundsException.class);

Benefits:

• not relying on any library
• localised check - more precise and allows to have multiple assertions like this within one test if needed
• easy to use

    @Test(expectedException=IndexOutOfBoundsException.class) 
    public void  testFooThrowsIndexOutOfBoundsException() throws Exception {
         doThrow(IndexOutOfBoundsException.class).when(foo).doStuff();  
         try {
             foo.doStuff(); 
            } catch (IndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
                       assertEquals(IndexOutOfBoundsException .class, ex.getCause().getClass());
                      throw e;

               }

    }

Here is another way to check method thrown correct exception or not.

My solution using Java 8 lambdas:

public static <T extends Throwable> T assertThrows(Class<T> expected, ThrowingRunnable action) throws Throwable {
    try {
        action.run();
        Assert.fail("Did not throw expected " + expected.getSimpleName());
        return null; // never actually
    } catch (Throwable actual) {
        if (!expected.isAssignableFrom(actual.getClass())) { // runtime '!(actual instanceof expected)'
            System.err.println("Threw " + actual.getClass().getSimpleName() 
                               + ", which is not a subtype of expected " 
                               + expected.getSimpleName());
            throw actual; // throw the unexpected Throwable for maximum transparency
        } else {
            return (T) actual; // return the expected Throwable for further examination
        }
    }
}

You have to define a FunctionalInterface, because Runnable doesn't declare the required throws.

@FunctionalInterface
public interface ThrowingRunnable {
    void run() throws Throwable;
}

The method can be used as follows:

class CustomException extends Exception {
    public final String message;
    public CustomException(final String message) { this.message = message;}
}
CustomException e = assertThrows(CustomException.class, () -> {
    throw new CustomException("Lorem Ipsum");
});
assertEquals("Lorem Ipsum", e.message);

There are two ways of writing test case

1. Annotate the test with the exception which is thrown by the method. Something like this @Test(expected = IndexOutOfBoundsException.class)

2. You can simply catch the exception in the test class using the try catch block and assert on the message that is thrown from the method in test class.

   try{
   }
   catch(exception to be thrown from method e)
   {
        assertEquals("message", e.getmessage());
   }
   

I hope this answers your query Happy learning...

try {
    my method();
    fail( "This method must thrwo" );
} catch (Exception ex) {
    assertThat(ex.getMessage()).isEqual(myErrormsg);
}