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Project: RSpec Core 3.3

Publisher: RSpec

`--example` option

Use the --example (or -e) option to filter examples by name.

The argument is matched against the full description of the example, which is
the concatenation of descriptions of the group (including any nested groups)
and the example.

This allows you to run a single uniquely named example, all examples with
similar names, all the examples in a uniquely named group, etc, etc.

You can also use the option more than once to specify multiple example
matches.

Note: description-less examples that have generated descriptions (typical when using the one-liner syntax) cannot be directly filtered with this option, because it is necessary to execute the example to generate the description, so RSpec is unable to use the not-yet-generated description to decide whether or not to execute an example. You can, of course, pass part of a group's description to select all examples defined in the group (including those that have no description).

Background
Given
a file named "first_spec.rb" with: 
RSpec.describe "first group" do
  it "first example in first group" do; end
  it "second example in first group" do; end
end
And
a file named "second_spec.rb" with: 
RSpec.describe "second group" do
  it "first example in second group" do; end
  it "second example in second group" do; end
end
And
a file named "third_spec.rb" with: 
RSpec.describe "third group" do
  it "first example in third group" do; end
  context "nested group" do
    it "first example in nested group" do; end
    it "second example in nested group" do; end
  end
end
And
a file named "fourth_spec.rb" with: 
RSpec.describe Array do
  describe "#length" do
    it "is the number of items" do
      expect(Array.new([1,2,3]).length).to eq 3
    end
  end
end
Scenarios
  1. No matches
  2. Match on one word
  3. One match in each context
  4. One match in one file using just the example name
  5. One match in one file using the example name and the group name
  6. All examples in one group
  7. One match in one file with group name
  8. All examples in one group including examples in nested groups
  9. Match using `ClassName#method_name` form
  10. Multiple applications of example name option
No matches
When
I run rspec . --example nothing_like_this
Then
the process should succeed even though no examples were run
Match on one word
When
I run rspec . --example example
Then
the examples should all pass
One match in each context
When
I run rspec . --example 'first example'
Then
the examples should all pass
One match in one file using just the example name
When
I run rspec . --example 'first example in first group'
Then
the examples should all pass
One match in one file using the example name and the group name
When
I run rspec . --example 'first group first example in first group'
Then
the examples should all pass
All examples in one group
When
I run rspec . --example 'first group'
Then
the examples should all pass
One match in one file with group name
When
I run rspec . --example 'second group first example'
Then
the examples should all pass
All examples in one group including examples in nested groups
When
I run rspec . --example 'third group'
Then
the examples should all pass
Match using `ClassName#method_name` form
When
I run rspec . --example 'Array#length'
Then
the examples should all pass
Multiple applications of example name option
When
I run rspec . --example 'first group' --example 'second group' --format d
Then
the examples should all pass
And
the output should contain all of these:
first example in first group
second example in first group
first example in second group
second example in second group
And
the output should not contain any of these:
first example in third group
nested group first example in nested group
nested group second example in nested group

Last published over 5 years ago by myronmarston.