1. Overview

In this tutorial, we'll cover the annotations of the Mockito library – @Mock, @Spy, @Captor, and @InjectMocks.

For more Mockito goodness, have a look at the series here.

2. Enable Mockito Annotations

Before we go further, let's explore different ways to enable the use of annotations with Mockito tests.

2.1. MockitoJUnitRunner

The first option we have is to annotate the JUnit test with a MockitoJUnitRunner as in the following example:

@RunWith(MockitoJUnitRunner.class) public class MockitoAnnotationTest { ... }

2.2. MockitoAnnotations.initMocks()

Alternatively, we can enable Mockito annotations programmatically as well, by invoking MockitoAnnotations.initMocks():

@Before public void init() { MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this); }

2.3. MockitoJUnit.rule()

Lastly, we can use a MockitoJUnit.rule() as shown below:

public class MockitoInitWithMockitoJUnitRuleUnitTest { @Rule public MockitoRule initRule = MockitoJUnit.rule(); ... }

In this case, we must remember to make our rule public.

3. @Mock Annotation

The most used widely used annotation in Mockito is @Mock. We can use @Mock to create and inject mocked instances without having to call Mockito.mock manually.

In the following example – we'll create a mocked ArrayList with the manual way without using @Mock annotation:

@Test public void whenNotUseMockAnnotation_thenCorrect() { List mockList = Mockito.mock(ArrayList.class); mockList.add("one"); Mockito.verify(mockList).add("one"); assertEquals(0, mockList.size()); Mockito.when(mockList.size()).thenReturn(100); assertEquals(100, mockList.size()); }

And now we'll do the same but we'll inject the mock using the @Mock annotation:

@Mock List<String> mockedList; @Test public void whenUseMockAnnotation_thenMockIsInjected() { mockedList.add("one"); Mockito.verify(mockedList).add("one"); assertEquals(0, mockedList.size()); Mockito.when(mockedList.size()).thenReturn(100); assertEquals(100, mockedList.size()); }

Note how – in both examples, we're interacting with the mock and verifying some of these interactions – just to make sure that the mock is behaving correctly.

4. @Spy Annotation

Now – let's see how to use @Spy annotation to spy on an existing instance.

In the following example – we create a spy of a List with the old way without using @Spy annotation:

@Test public void whenNotUseSpyAnnotation_thenCorrect() { List<String> spyList = Mockito.spy(new ArrayList<String>()); spyList.add("one"); spyList.add("two"); Mockito.verify(spyList).add("one"); Mockito.verify(spyList).add("two"); assertEquals(2, spyList.size()); Mockito.doReturn(100).when(spyList).size(); assertEquals(100, spyList.size()); }

Let's now do the same – spy on the list – but do so using the @Spy annotation:

@Spy List<String> spiedList = new ArrayList<String>(); @Test public void whenUseSpyAnnotation_thenSpyIsInjectedCorrectly() { spiedList.add("one"); spiedList.add("two"); Mockito.verify(spiedList).add("one"); Mockito.verify(spiedList).add("two"); assertEquals(2, spiedList.size()); Mockito.doReturn(100).when(spiedList).size(); assertEquals(100, spiedList.size()); }

Note how, as before – we're interacting with the spy here to make sure that it behaves correctly. In this example we:

Used the real method spiedList.add() to add elements to the spiedList.

method spiedList.add() to add elements to the spiedList. Stubbed the method spiedList.size() to return 100 instead of 2 using Mockito.doReturn().

5. @Captor Annotation

Next – let's see how to use the @Captor annotation to create an ArgumentCaptor instance.

In the following example – we create an ArgumentCaptor with the old way without using @Captor annotation:

@Test public void whenNotUseCaptorAnnotation_thenCorrect() { List mockList = Mockito.mock(List.class); ArgumentCaptor<String> arg = ArgumentCaptor.forClass(String.class); mockList.add("one"); Mockito.verify(mockList).add(arg.capture()); assertEquals("one", arg.getValue()); }

Let's now make use of @Captor for the same purpose – to create an ArgumentCaptor instance:

@Mock List mockedList; @Captor ArgumentCaptor argCaptor; @Test public void whenUseCaptorAnnotation_thenTheSam() { mockedList.add("one"); Mockito.verify(mockedList).add(argCaptor.capture()); assertEquals("one", argCaptor.getValue()); }

Notice how the test becomes simpler and more readable when we take out the configuration logic.

6. @InjectMocks Annotation

Now – let's discuss how to use @InjectMocks annotation – to inject mock fields into the tested object automatically.

In the following example – we use @InjectMocks to inject the mock wordMap into the MyDictionary dic:

@Mock Map<String, String> wordMap; @InjectMocks MyDictionary dic = new MyDictionary(); @Test public void whenUseInjectMocksAnnotation_thenCorrect() { Mockito.when(wordMap.get("aWord")).thenReturn("aMeaning"); assertEquals("aMeaning", dic.getMeaning("aWord")); }

And here is the class MyDictionary:

public class MyDictionary { Map<String, String> wordMap; public MyDictionary() { wordMap = new HashMap<String, String>(); } public void add(final String word, final String meaning) { wordMap.put(word, meaning); } public String getMeaning(final String word) { return wordMap.get(word); } }

7. Injecting a Mock into a Spy

Similar to the above test, we might want to inject a mock into a spy:

@Mock Map<String, String> wordMap; @Spy MyDictionary spyDic = new MyDictionary();

However, Mockito doesn't support injecting mocks into spies, and the following test results in an exception:

@Test public void whenUseInjectMocksAnnotation_thenCorrect() { Mockito.when(wordMap.get("aWord")).thenReturn("aMeaning"); assertEquals("aMeaning", spyDic.getMeaning("aWord")); }

If we want to use a mock with a spy, we can manually inject the mock through a constructor:

MyDictionary(Map<String, String> wordMap) { this.wordMap = wordMap; }

Instead of using the annotation, we can now create the spy manually:

@Mock Map<String, String> wordMap; MyDictionary spyDic; @Before public void init() { MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this); spyDic = Mockito.spy(new MyDictionary(wordMap)); }

The test will now pass.

8. Running into NPE While Using Annotation

Often, we may run into NullPointerException when we try to actually use the instance annotated with @Mock or @Spy:

public class MockitoAnnotationsUninitializedUnitTest { @Mock List<String> mockedList; @Test(expected = NullPointerException.class) public void whenMockitoAnnotationsUninitialized_thenNPEThrown() { Mockito.when(mockedList.size()).thenReturn(1); } }

Most of the time, this happens simply because we forgot to properly enable Mockito annotations.

So, we have to keep in mind that each time we want to use Mockito annotations, we must take an extra step and initialize them as we already explained earlier.

9. Notes

Finally – here are some notes about Mockito annotations:

Mockito's annotations minimize repetitive mock creation code

They make tests more readable

@InjectMocks is necessary for injecting both @Spy and @Mock instances

10. Conclusion

In this quick tutorial, we showed the basics of annotations in the Mockito library.

The implementation of all these examples can be found over on GitHub. This is a Maven project, so it should be easy to import and run as it is.

And of course, for more Mockito goodness, have a look at the series here.