Moq.Mock<T> - how to set up a method that takes an expression

Question

I am Mocking my repository interface and am not sure how to set up a method that takes an expression and returns an object? I am using Moq and NUnit.

Interface:

public interface IReadOnlyRepository : IDisposable
{
    IQueryable<T> All<T>() where T : class;
    T Single<T>(Expression<Func<T, bool>> expression) where T : class;
}

Test with IQueryable is already set up, but don't know how to set up the T Single:

private Moq.Mock<IReadOnlyRepository> _mockRepos;
private AdminController _controller;
[SetUp]
public void SetUp()
{
    var allPages = new List<Page>();
    for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    {
        allPages.Add(new Page { Id = i, Title = "Page Title " + i, Slug = "Page-Title-" + i, Content = "Page " + i + " on page content." });
    }
    _mockRepos = new Moq.Mock<IReadOnlyRepository>();
    _mockRepos.Setup(x => x.All<Page>()).Returns(allPages.AsQueryable());
    //Not sure what to do here???
    _mockRepos.Setup(x => x.Single<Page>()
    //----
    _controller = new AdminController(_mockRepos.Object);
}

Answer 1

You can set it up like this:

_mockRepos.Setup(x => x.Single<Page>(It.IsAny<Expression<Func<Page, bool>>>()))//.Returns etc...;

However you are coming up against one of Moq's shortcomings. You would want to put an actual expression there instead of using It.IsAny, but Moq doesn't support setting up methods that take expressions with specific expressions (it's a difficult feature to implement). The difficulty comes from having to figure out whether two expressions are equivalent.

So in your test you can pass in any Expression<Func<Page,bool>> and it will pass back whatever you have setup the mock to return. The value of the test is a little diluted.

Answer 2

Have the .Returns call return the result of the expression against your allPages variable.

_mockRepos.Setup(x => x.Single<Page>(It.IsAny<Expression<Func<Page, bool>>>()))
    .Returns( (Expression<Func<Page, bool>> predicate) => allPages.Where(predicate) );

Answer 3

I have found that It.Is<T> should be used in place of It.IsAny<T> for more accurate results.

Page expectedPage = new Page {Id = 12, Title = "Some Title"};
_mockRepos.Setup(x => x.Single<Page>(It.Is<Expression<Func<Page, bool>>>(u => u.Compile().Invoke(expectedPage))))
                       .Returns(() => expectedPage);

Answer 4

Using Moq's It.IsAny<> without a .CallBack forces you to write code that's not covered by your test. Instead, it allows any query/expression at all to pass through, rendering your mock basically useless from a unit testing perspective.

The solution: You either need to use a Callback to test the expression OR you need to constrain your mock better. Either way is messy and difficult. I've dealt with this issue for as long as I've been practicing TDD. I finally threw together a helper class to make this a lot more expressive and less messy. Here's an example of one possible end-result:

mockPeopleRepository
  .Setup(x => x.Find(ThatHas.AnExpressionFor<Person>()
    .ThatMatches(correctPerson)
    .And().ThatDoesNotMatch(deletedPerson)
    .Build()))
  .Returns(_expectedListOfPeople); 

Here's the blog article that talks about it and gives the source code: http://awkwardcoder.com/2013/04/24/constraining-mocks-with-expression-arguments/