What are mocking and stubbing in Ruby?

What are mocking and stubbing in Ruby?

Mocking and stubbing are techniques used in testing to isolate parts of your code. Mocking creates a fake object that simulates the behavior of real objects, while stubbing allows you to set predefined responses for methods.

Can you give me an example of how to use mocks in RSpec?

Sure! In RSpec, you can use the double method to create a mock object. For example: let(:user) { double('User') } and then you can set expectations like expect(user).to receive(:name).and_return('John').

What about stubbing? How is it different?

Stubbing is about providing a fixed response to a method call. For instance, you can use allow(user).to receive(:name).and_return('John') to stub the name method on the user object.

When should I use mocking over stubbing?

Use mocking when you want to verify that a method was called with specific arguments, and use stubbing when you just need to provide a controlled response without caring about the call.