Composing Matchers

Composing and transforming matchers

Gomega matchers are values, so you can wrap and nest them to express several requirements in a single Expect/Eventually. Start with gomega:matchers for the catalog; reach here when one assertion needs to do more. Docs: https://onsi.github.io/gomega/#composing-matchers.

Logical combinators

Expect(n).To(And(BeNumerically(">", 0), BeNumerically("<", 10)))   // all must pass
Expect(msg).To(Or(Equal("Success"), MatchRegexp(`^Error .+$`)))    // any may pass
Expect(s).To(Not(BeEmpty()))                                        // negate

• And(ms ...GomegaMatcher) / SatisfyAll(...) — identical; succeeds only if every matcher passes. Short-circuits on the first failure.
• Or(ms ...GomegaMatcher) / SatisfyAny(...) — identical; succeeds if any matcher passes. Short-circuits on the first success.
• Not(matcher GomegaMatcher) — logical negation; usually clearer than the .NotTo(...) form when nested.

These are the building blocks for lightweight named matchers:

func BeBetween(min, max int) GomegaMatcher {
    return SatisfyAll(BeNumerically(">", min), BeNumerically("<", max))
}
Expect(n).To(BeBetween(0, 10))

WithTransform — map the actual, then match

WithTransform(transform any, matcher GomegaMatcher) applies transform to ACTUAL and matches the result.

Expect(element).To(WithTransform(func(e Element) Color { return e.Color }, Equal(BLUE)))

Transform-function rules: it must take exactly one argument (the actual) and return either one value, or (value, error). Returning an error fails the assertion gracefully instead of panicking — useful for transforms that accept several input types:

func HaveSprocketName(name string) GomegaMatcher {
    return WithTransform(func(actual any) (string, error) {
        switch s := actual.(type) {
        case *Sprocket: return s.Name, nil
        case Sprocket:  return s.Name, nil
        default:        return "", fmt.Errorf("expected a Sprocket, got %T", actual)
        }
    }, Equal(name))
}

This is the standard pattern for distilling a WithTransform into a reusable named matcher.

Satisfy — an ad-hoc boolean predicate

Satisfy(predicate any) passes when predicate(ACTUAL) returns true. The predicate takes one argument and returns one bool.

Expect(n).To(Satisfy(func(i int) bool { return i%2 == 0 }))

Reach for Satisfy for a one-off check; WithTransform when you want the inner matcher's richer failure message. For anything reused, write a real matcher → gomega:custom-matchers.

HaveValue — dereference before matching

HaveValue(matcher GomegaMatcher) dereferences ACTUAL through pointers/interfaces (up to 31 levels) and applies matcher to the underlying value, so the same matcher works whether the actual is a value or a pointer. Fails on nil.

i := 42
Expect(&i).To(HaveValue(Equal(42)))
Expect(i).To(HaveValue(Equal(42)))

Not(HaveValue(...)) does not suppress the nil error. To accept nil while rejecting a specific value, use Or(BeNil(), Not(HaveValue(...))).

HaveField — assert on a struct field or method result

HaveField(field string, value any) extracts a field (or method result) from a struct and matches it. If value is a matcher it is used directly; otherwise it is wrapped in Equal.

Expect(book).To(HaveField("Title", "Les Miserables"))
Expect(book).To(HaveField("Title", ContainSubstring("Les Mis")))   // value can be a matcher
Expect(book).To(HaveField("Author.Name", "Victor Hugo"))           // nested with "."
Expect(book).To(HaveField("Author.DOB.Year()", BeNumerically("<", 1900))) // "()" calls a method

The () suffix invokes a method that takes no arguments and returns exactly one value. A missing field is an error, not a failed match. To guard, pair with HaveExistingField(field): And(HaveExistingField("X"), HaveField("X", VALUE)) — handy when reusing HaveField as a ContainElement filter.

HaveEach — every element must match

HaveEach(element any) passes when every element of an array, slice, map (values), or iter.Seq/iter.Seq2 matches. A plain value is wrapped in Equal; pass a matcher for richer checks.

Expect([]string{"Foo", "FooBar"}).To(HaveEach(ContainSubstring("Foo")))

An empty (or nil) collection is an error — it is ambiguous whether "each" holds. If empty is acceptable, use Or(BeEmpty(), HaveEach(...)).

The big idea: matchers as arguments

Nearly every collection/channel matcher accepts matchers where it accepts values, so you compose by nesting rather than learning new operators:

Expect(xs).To(ContainElement(HaveField("Name", "gomega")))
Expect(xs).To(ContainElement(HaveField("Name", BeKeyOf(names)), &found)) // matcher + capture pointer
Expect(books).To(ConsistOf(
    HaveField("Author.Name", "Victor Hugo"),
    And(HaveField("Pages", BeNumerically(">", 100)), HaveField("InPrint", BeTrue())),
))
Expect(m).To(HaveKeyWithValue("user", HaveField("Active", BeTrue())))
Eventually(ch).Should(Receive(HaveField("Kind", "sesame")))

This composes cleanly with Eventually/Consistently too → gomega:async.

When to switch to gstruct

For deep, partial matching across nested structs, slices, and maps, hand-rolled HaveField/And/HaveEach trees get noisy. gstruct's MatchFields/MatchAllElements/MatchKeys are purpose-built for that shape → gomega:gstruct.