How can I get PHPUnit MockObjects to return different values based on a parameter?

Question

I've got a PHPUnit mock object that returns 'return value' no matter what its arguments:

// From inside a test...
$mock = $this->getMock('myObject', 'methodToMock');
$mock->expects($this->any))
     ->method('methodToMock')
     ->will($this->returnValue('return value'));

What I want to be able to do is return a different value based on the arguments passed to the mock method. I've tried something like:

$mock = $this->getMock('myObject', 'methodToMock');

// methodToMock('one')
$mock->expects($this->any))
     ->method('methodToMock')
     ->with($this->equalTo('one'))
     ->will($this->returnValue('method called with argument "one"'));

// methodToMock('two')
$mock->expects($this->any))
     ->method('methodToMock')
     ->with($this->equalTo('two'))
     ->will($this->returnValue('method called with argument "two"'));

But this causes PHPUnit to complain if the mock isn't called with the argument 'two', so I assume that the definition of methodToMock('two') overwrites the definition of the first.

So my question is: Is there any way to get a PHPUnit mock object to return a different value based on its arguments? And if so, how?

AlexisL61 · Accepted Answer · 2025-05-15 17:20:34Z

144

Use a callback. e.g. (straight from PHPUnit documentation):

<?php
class StubTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
    public function testReturnCallbackStub()
    {
        $stub = $this->getMock(
          'SomeClass', array('doSomething')
        );
 
        $stub->expects($this->any())
             ->method('doSomething')
             ->willReturnCallback('callback');
 
        // $stub->doSomething() returns callback(...)
    }
}
 
function callback() {
    $args = func_get_args();
    // ...
}
?>

Do whatever processing you want in the callback() and return the result based on your $args as appropriate.

edited May 15 at 17:20

AlexisL61

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answered Nov 15, 2008 at 11:13

Howard Sandford

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7 Comments

Kris Erickson Over a year ago

Can you provide a link to the documentation? I can't seem to find it with "the Google"

Patrick Fisher Over a year ago

Note that you can use a method as a callback by passing an array, e.g. $this->returnCallback(array('MyClassTest','myCallback')).

Ocramius Over a year ago

It should also be possible to pass directly a closure to it

Herman J. Radtke III Over a year ago

This should be used only in rare cases. I would suggest using returnValueMap instead as it does not require custom logic to be written in the callback.

bmorenate Over a year ago

I can't thank you enough. Also, with PHP versions > 5.4, you can use an anonymous function as the callback. $this->returnCallback(function() { // ... })

|

smottt · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-10 13:50:53Z

139

From the latest phpUnit docs: "Sometimes a stubbed method should return different values depending on a predefined list of arguments. You can use returnValueMap() to create a map that associates arguments with corresponding return values."

$mock->expects($this->any())
    ->method('getConfigValue')
    ->will(
        $this->returnValueMap(
            array(
                array('firstparam', 'secondparam', 'retval'),
                array('modes', 'foo', array('Array', 'of', 'modes'))
            )
        )
    );

edited Mar 10, 2016 at 13:50

smottt

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answered Jul 31, 2012 at 9:27

Nikola Ivancevic

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Comments

Onema · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-29 20:48:05Z

53

I had a similar problem (although slightly different... I didn't need different return value based on arguments, but had to test to ensure 2 sets of arguments were being passed to the same function). I stumbled upon using something like this:

$mock = $this->getMock();
$mock->expects($this->at(0))
    ->method('foo')
    ->with(...)
    ->will($this->returnValue(...));

$mock->expects($this->at(1))
    ->method('foo')
    ->with(...)
    ->will($this->returnValue(...));

It's not perfect, since it requires that the order of the 2 calls to foo() is known, but in practice this probably isn't too bad.

edited Apr 29, 2015 at 20:48

Onema

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answered Jan 13, 2010 at 8:53

Adam

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1 Comment

Nicolas Bonnici Over a year ago

The at() matcher has been deprecated. It will be removed in PHPUnit 10. Please refactor your test to not rely on the order in which methods are invoked.

ceckoslab · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-29 13:56:55Z

29

You would probably want to do a callback in a OOP fashion:

<?php
class StubTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
    public function testReturnAction()
    {
        $object = $this->getMock('class_name', array('method_to_mock'));
        $object->expects($this->any())
            ->method('method_to_mock')
            ->will($this->returnCallback(array($this, 'returnTestDataCallback')));

        $object->returnAction('param1');
        // assert what param1 should return here

        $object->returnAction('param2');
        // assert what param2 should return here
    }
    
    public function returnTestDataCallback()
    {
        $args = func_get_args();

        // process $args[0] here and return the data you want to mock
        return 'The parameter was ' . $args[0];
    }
}
?>

edited Oct 29, 2021 at 13:56

ceckoslab

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answered Jan 12, 2011 at 0:01

Francis Lewis

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Comments

kaiser · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-09 13:12:54Z

28

It is not exactly what you ask, but in some cases it can help:

$mock->expects( $this->any() ) )
 ->method( 'methodToMock' )
 ->will( $this->onConsecutiveCalls( 'one', 'two' ) );

onConsecutiveCalls - returns a list of values in the specified order

edited Sep 9, 2014 at 13:12

kaiser

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answered Mar 19, 2014 at 10:51

Prokhor Sednev

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Comments

oligofren · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-31 00:44:05Z

14

Pass two level array, where each element is an array of:

first are method parameters, and last is return value.

example:

->willReturnMap([
    ['firstArg', 'secondArg', 'returnValue']
])

edited Dec 31, 2021 at 0:44

oligofren

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answered Apr 4, 2017 at 13:02

antonmarin

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1 Comment

Vladyslav Sikailo Over a year ago

the best answer! note: params with default values should also be specified

Anthony · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-02 13:41:15Z

5

You also can return the argument as follows:

$stub = $this->getMock(
  'SomeClass', array('doSomething')
);

$stub->expects($this->any())
     ->method('doSomething')
     ->will($this->returnArgument(0));

As you can see in the Mocking documentation, the method returnValue($index) allows to return the given argument.

edited Feb 2, 2018 at 13:41

Anthony

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answered Aug 6, 2013 at 8:59

Gabriel Gcia Fdez

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1 Comment

barell Over a year ago

I think Stub vs Mock is already confusing topic for many people. You make it even more confusing by doing $stub = $this->getMock(

eddy147 · Accepted Answer · 2008-11-10 14:25:19Z

0

Do you mean something like this?

public function TestSomeCondition($condition){
  $mockObj = $this->getMockObject();
  $mockObj->setReturnValue('yourMethod',$condition);
}

answered Nov 10, 2008 at 14:25

eddy147

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1 Comment

Ben Dowling Over a year ago

I think that's SimpleTest code, not PHPUnit. But no, it isn't what I want to achieve. Say I had a mock object that returned a word for a given number. My mock method would need to return "one" when called with 1, "two" when called with 2 etc. $

JamShady · Accepted Answer · 2008-11-10 15:13:04Z

0

I had a similar problem which I couldn't work out as well (there's surprisingly little information about for PHPUnit). In my case, I just made each test separate test - known input and known output. I realised that I didn't need to make a jack-of-all-trades mock object, I only needed a specific one for a specific test, and thus I separated the tests out and can test individual aspects of my code as a separate unit. I'm not sure if this might be applicable to you or not, but that's down to what you need to test.

answered Nov 10, 2008 at 15:13

JamShady

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1 Comment

Ben Dowling Over a year ago

Unfortunately that wouldn't work in my situation. The mock is being passed into a method I'm testing, and the test method calls the mocked method with different arguments. It's interesting to know that you couldn't solve the problem though. It sounds like this could be a PHPUnit limitation.

Blackbam · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-09 18:33:01Z

$this->BusinessMock = $this->createMock('AppBundle\Entity\Business');

    public function testBusiness()
    {
        /*
            onConcecutiveCalls : Whether you want that the Stub returns differents values when it will be called .
        */
        $this->BusinessMock ->method('getEmployees')
                                ->will($this->onConsecutiveCalls(
                                            $this->returnArgument(0),
                                            $this->returnValue('employee')                                      
                                            )
                                      );
        // first call

        $this->assertInstanceOf( //$this->returnArgument(0),
                'argument',
                $this->BusinessMock->getEmployees()
                );
       // second call


        $this->assertEquals('employee',$this->BusinessMock->getEmployees()) 
      //$this->returnValue('employee'),


    }

erenon · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-24 17:19:44Z

-2

Try :

->with($this->equalTo('one'),$this->equalTo('two))->will($this->returnValue('return value'));

edited Mar 24, 2010 at 17:19

erenon

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answered Oct 3, 2009 at 21:26

Rob Bolton

1 Comment

TaZ Over a year ago

This answer does not apply to the original question, but it details a similar problem I had: verify that a certain set of parameters is provided. PHPUnit's with() accepts multiple arguments, one matcher for each parameter.

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