How to mock a dictionary in Python

Question

Let’s say I have a function like this:

def do_something(dict_obj):
   # access to the dict_obj then do some stuff
   eg.
   if dict_obj['doors']:
      do_something_with_doors()
   map_car_make(dict_obj['make'])
   ...

   if dict_obj['is_active']:
        do_something_else()

I want to mock the dict_obj to have is_active element and don’t care the rest, how do I do that?

Asked By: James Lin

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Source

Answer 1

You can use dict.get method to return the default value of your choice that can mock the existence of is_active entry.

Answered By: Kevin

Answer 2

How to mock a dictionary in Python is a good/direct question someone else can search, so:

I suggest MagicMock instead of Mock
Overload the __getitem__

from unittest.mock import MagicMock

m = MagicMock()
d = {'key_1': 'value'}
m.__getitem__.side_effect = d.__getitem__

# dict behaviour
m['key_1'] # => 'value'
m['key_2'] # => raise KeyError

# mock behaviour
m.foo(42)
m.foo.assert_called_once_with(43) # => raise AssertionError

Related Questions:

=== EDIT ===

As a function for direct copy/pasting

def mock_dict(d):
  m = MagicMock()
  m.__getitem__.side_effect = d.__getitem__
  return m

Answered By: Manu Artero

Answer 3

You can use this to make a mock behave like a dictionary:

mock = mocker.MagicMock()
mock.__getitem__.side_effect = lambda x: getattr(mock, x)

With that code mock['some_property'] equals to mock.some_property.
This way you can still use your autogenerated Mocks so useful for assertions, which is why I didn’t like the accepted answer.

If you still need to access the methods of the dictionary then the code will need further work.

Answered By: Guido Tarsia

Answer 4

For anyone coming across this later, there is also mock.patch.dict which can be used as a context manager, decorator, or class decorator.

For example:

from mock import patch

foo = {}
@patch.dict(foo, {"is_active": True})
def test():
    assert foo['is_active'] == True

Or to mock os.environ which is how I came across this question:


import os
from mock import patch

@patch.dict("os.environ", {"FOO": "BAR"})
def test_env():
    assert os.environ['FOO'] == "BAR"

Answered By: Peter Boone

Answer 5

Maybe I misunderstood a question, but what about just default dict?

You can safely access any keys now.

from collections import defaultdict

dd = defaultdict(str, is_active=True)

... # Perform code calls
# And check it
assert dd['is_active'] == True

Answered By: Давид Шико

How to mock a dictionary in Python

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