NAME

Test::Identity - assert the referential identity of a reference

SYNOPSIS

            

              
              
use Test::More tests => 2;
use Test::Identity;
use Thingy;
{
   my $thingy;
   sub get_thingy { return $thingy }
   sub set_thingy { $thingy = shift; }
}
identical( get_thingy, undef, 'get_thingy is undef' );
my $test_thingy = Thingy->new;
set_thingy $test_thingy;
identical( get_thingy, $thingy, 'get_thingy is now $test_thingy' );
            
          

DESCRIPTION

This module provides a single testing function, identical. It asserts that a given reference is as expected; that is, it either refers to the same object or is undef. It is similar to Test::More::is except that it uses refaddr, ensuring that it behaves correctly even if the references under test are objects that overload stringification or numification.

It also provides better diagnostics if the test fails:

            

              
              
$ perl -MTest::More=tests,1 -MTest::Identity -e'identical [], {}'
1..1
not ok 1
#   Failed test at -e line 1.
# Expected an anonymous HASH ref, got an anonymous ARRAY ref
# Looks like you failed 1 test of 1.
$ perl -MTest::More=tests,1 -MTest::Identity -e'identical [], []'
1..1
not ok 1
#   Failed test at -e line 1.
# Expected an anonymous ARRAY ref to the correct object
# Looks like you failed 1 test of 1.
            
          

FUNCTIONS

identical( $got, $expected, $name )

Asserts that $got refers to the same object as $expected.

AUTHOR

Paul Evans <leonerd@leonerd.org.uk>