Spies in Sinon

Sinon spies are used to record information about function calls. Unlike mocks or stubs, spies do not replace the function being called. Spies just record what parameters the function was called with, what value it returned, and other information about the function execution.

const sinon = require('sinon');
const assert = require('assert');

let calls = 0;
let obj = {
  myFunction: function(data) {
    return ++calls;
  }
};

const spy = sinon.spy(obj, 'myFunction');

obj.myFunction('test');

assert.equal(spy.getCall(0).args[0], 'test');

// Returns 1, which means the real `myFunction()` was called,
// rather than a stub.
assert.equal(spy.getCall(0).returnValue, 1);

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More Sinon Tutorials

• The callsFake() Function in Sinon
• How to Use Mocks with Sinon
• How to Stub a Function with Sinon
• Check What Arguments a Sinon Stub Was Called With
• How to Use the Sinon stub() Function