---
id: kibDevDocsOpsExpect
slug: /kibana-dev-docs/ops/expect
title: "@kbn/expect"
description: An assertion toolkit based on should.js
date: 2022-05-17
tags: ['kibana', 'dev', 'contributor', 'operations', 'expect']
---

Minimalistic BDD assertion toolkit based on
[should.js](http://github.com/visionmedia/should.js)

```js
expect(window.r).to.be(undefined);
expect({ a: 'b' }).to.eql({ a: 'b' })
expect(5).to.be.a('number');
expect([]).to.be.an('array');
expect(window).not.to.be.an(Image);
```

> NOTE: This is a local fork of https://github.com/Automattic/expect.js

## Features

- Cross-browser: works on IE6+, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera.
- Compatible with all test frameworks.
- Node.JS ready (`require('@kbn/expect')`).

## API

**ok**: asserts that the value is _truthy_ or not

```js
expect(1).to.be.ok();
expect(true).to.be.ok();
expect({}).to.be.ok();
expect(0).to.not.be.ok();
```

**be** / **equal**: asserts `===` equality

```js
expect(1).to.be(1)
expect(NaN).not.to.equal(NaN);
expect(1).not.to.be(true)
expect('1').to.not.be(1);
```

**eql**: asserts loose equality that works with objects

```js
expect({ a: 'b' }).to.eql({ a: 'b' });
expect(1).to.eql('1');
```

**a**/**an**: asserts `typeof` with support for `array` type and `instanceof`

```js
// typeof with optional `array`
expect(5).to.be.a('number');
expect([]).to.be.an('array');  // works
expect([]).to.be.an('object'); // works too, since it uses `typeof`

// constructors
expect([]).to.be.an(Array);
expect(tobi).to.be.a(Ferret);
expect(person).to.be.a(Mammal);
```

**match**: asserts `String` regular expression match

```js
expect(program.version).to.match(/[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+/);
```

**contain**: asserts indexOf for an array or string

```js
expect([1, 2]).to.contain(1);
expect('hello world').to.contain('world');
```

**length**: asserts array `.length`

```js
expect([]).to.have.length(0);
expect([1,2,3]).to.have.length(3);
```

**empty**: asserts that an array is empty or not

```js
expect([]).to.be.empty();
expect({}).to.be.empty();
expect({ length: 0, duck: 'typing' }).to.be.empty();
expect({ my: 'object' }).to.not.be.empty();
expect([1,2,3]).to.not.be.empty();
```

**property**: asserts presence of an own property (and value optionally)

```js
expect(window).to.have.property('expect')
expect(window).to.have.property('expect', expect)
expect({a: 'b'}).to.have.property('a');
```

**key**/**keys**: asserts the presence of a key. Supports the `only` modifier

```js
expect({ a: 'b' }).to.have.key('a');
expect({ a: 'b', c: 'd' }).to.only.have.keys('a', 'c');
expect({ a: 'b', c: 'd' }).to.only.have.keys(['a', 'c']);
expect({ a: 'b', c: 'd' }).to.not.only.have.key('a');
```

**throw**/**throwException**/**throwError**: asserts that the `Function` throws or not when called

```js
expect(fn).to.throw(); // synonym of throwException
expect(fn).to.throwError(); // synonym of throwException
expect(fn).to.throwException(function (e) { // get the exception object
  expect(e).to.be.a(SyntaxError);
});
expect(fn).to.throwException(/matches the exception message/);
expect(fn2).to.not.throwException();
```

**withArgs**: creates anonymous function to call fn with arguments

```js
expect(fn).withArgs(invalid, arg).to.throwException();
expect(fn).withArgs(valid, arg).to.not.throwException();
```

**within**: asserts a number within a range

```js
expect(1).to.be.within(0, Infinity);
```

**greaterThan**/**above**: asserts `>`

```js
expect(3).to.be.above(0);
expect(5).to.be.greaterThan(3);
```

**lessThan**/**below**: asserts `<`

```js
expect(0).to.be.below(3);
expect(1).to.be.lessThan(3);
```

**fail**: explicitly forces failure.

```js
expect().fail()
expect().fail("Custom failure message")
```

## Using with a test framework

For example, if you create a test suite with
[mocha](http://github.com/visionmedia/mocha).

Let's say we wanted to test the following program:

**math.js**

```js
function add (a, b) { return a + b; };
```

Our test file would look like this:

```js
describe('test suite', function () {
  it('should expose a function', function () {
    expect(add).to.be.a('function');
  });

  it('should do math', function () {
    expect(add(1, 3)).to.equal(4);
  });
});
```

If a certain expectation fails, an exception will be raised which gets captured
and shown/processed by the test runner.

## Differences with should.js

- No need for static `should` methods like `should.strictEqual`. For example,
  `expect(obj).to.be(undefined)` works well.
- Some API simplifications / changes.
- API changes related to browser compatibility.
