From: Thomas Wieczorek <wieczo.yo@...>
Date: 2007-08-02T17:33:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Is there a standard "assert" idiom in Ruby?

2007/8/2, Kenneth McDonald <kenneth.m.mcdonald@sbcglobal.net>:
> I'm not talking anything quite so complex as design by contract, just
> the difference between
>
> if  x != y
>     ...raise new exception...
> end
>
> vs.
>
> assert x == y
>

I am quite sure you're talking about Unit Testing. The PickAxe book
has a good and concise chapter(chapter 12) about it.

<code>
roman.rb
class Roman
  MAX_ROMAN = 4999

  def initialize(value)
    if value <= 0 or value > MAX_ROMAN then
      fail "Roman values must be > 0 and <= #{MAX_ROMAN}"
    end
    @value = value
  end

  FACTORS = [["m", 1000], ["cm", 900], ["d", 500],
                    ["cd", 400], ["c", 100], ["xc", 90],
                    ["l", 50], ["xl", 40], ["c", 10],
                    ["ix", 9], ["v", 5], ["iv", 4],
                    ["i", 1]]

  def to_s
    value = @value
    roman = ""
    for code, factor in FACTORS
      count, value = value.divmod(factor)
      roman << code unless count.zero?
    end
    roman
  end
end

test_roman.rb
require 'roman'
require 'test/unit'

class TestRoman < Test::Unit::TestCase
  def test_simple
    assert_equal("i", Roman.new(1).to_s)
    #will throw a failure
    #assert_equal("xi", Roman.new(9).to_s)
    assert_equal("ix", Roman.new(9).to_s)
    assert_raise(RuntimeError) { Roman.new(5000) }
  end
end
</code>

http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/test/unit/rdoc/classes/Test/Unit/Assertions.html
lists all available assert_* methods.