PHPUnit doesn't catch expected exceptions

Question

I have a set of tests, and I want to test that my classes throw exceptions at the right time. In the example, my class uses the __get() magic method, so I need to test that an exception is thrown when an invalid property is retrieved:

function testExceptionThrownWhenGettingInvalidProperty() {
  $obj = new MyClass();
  $this->setExpectedException("Property qwerty does not exist");
  $qwerty = $obj->qwerty;
}

The class throws an error as it should, but instead of just getting a pass, the exception isn't caught!

There was 1 error:

1) QueryTest::testExceptionThrownWhenGettingInvalidProperty
Exception: Property qwerty does not exist

I was using SimpleTest before, and $this->expectException(new Exception("Property qwerty does not exist")); worked just fine. I know there are other methods (@expectedException and try-catch), but this one should work and it looks a lot cleaner. Any ideas how I can make this work?

Answer 1

It's not looking for the text in the exception, it's looking for the name of the exception class... Docs

$this->setExpectedException('Exception');

It's quite handy when you're using SPL Exceptions, or custom exception classes...

Answer 2

Adding to ircmaxell's answer, there is actually a simpler way of doing this:

/**
 * @expectedException MyExceptionClass
 * @expectedExceptionMessage Array too small
 */
public function testSomething()
{
}

The @expectedException the class name of the exception to expect, and @expectedExceptionMessage is a substring of the exception message to expect (that's right, you don't have to have the entire message).

If you prefer to not use docblock annotations, both of these are actually available as methods on the test case.