JUnit 4 compare Sets

Question

How would you succinctly assert the equality of Collection elements, specifically a Set in JUnit 4?

Answer 1

If you want to check whether a List or Set contains a set of specific values (instead of comparing it with an already existing collection), often the toString method of collections is handy:

String[] actualResult = calltestedmethod();
assertEquals("[foo, bar]", Arrays.asList(actualResult).toString());

List otherResult = callothertestedmethod();
assertEquals("[42, mice]", otherResult.toString());

This is a bit shorter than first constructing the expected collection and comparing it with the actual collection, and easier to write and correct.

(Admittedly, this is not a particularily clean method, and can't distinguish an element "foo, bar" from two elements "foo" and "bar". But in practice I think it's most important that it's easy and fast to write tests, otherwise many developers just won't without being pressed.)