JUnit expected tag not working as expected

Question

I have the following test case in eclipse, using JUnit 4 which is refusing to pass. What could be wrong?

@Test(expected = IllegalArgumentException.class)
public void testIAE() {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException();
}

This exact testcase came about when trying to test my own code with the expected tag didn't work. I wanted to see if JUnit would pass the most basic test. It didn't.

I've also tested with custom exceptions as expected without luck.

Screenshot:

Answer 1

The problem is that your AnnounceThreadTest extends TestCase. Because it extends TestCase, the JUnit Runner is treating it as a JUnit 3.8 test, and the test is running because it starts with the word test, hiding the fact that the @Test annotiation is in fact not being used at all.

To fix this, remove the "extends TestCase" from the class definition.

Answer 2

Instead of removing extends TestCase , you can add this to run your test case with Junit4 which supports annotation.

@RunWith(JUnit4.class)

Answer 3

Just ran this in IntelliJ using JUnit 4.4:

   @Test(expected = IllegalArgumentException.class)
   public void testExpected()
   {
       throw new IllegalArgumentException();
   }

Passes perfectly.

Rebuild your entire project and try again. There's something else that you're doing wrong. JUnit 4.4 is working as advertised.