Java JSON unit test pass with wrong value

Question

I have the following function:

public class NorthboundApiLogicTest {

  @Test
  public void testIfParametersValuesAreCorrect() {
    String body = "{\"exception\":\"world\",\"error\":\"Not Found\",\"message\":\"hello\""
        + ",\"timestamp\":\"2020-01-07T12:26:48.334386Z\",\"status\":\"404\"}";
    try {
      JSONAssert.assertEquals("{message:hello, exception:world, status:403, error:Not Found}", 
          body, false);
    } catch (Exception e) {
      System.err.println(e);
    }
    System.out.println(body);
  }
}

I run this test with Maven, and strangely it pass successfully.

However, it should not, because I assert that status=403 but the value is 404. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

It's failing to parse the JSON before it even performs an assertion on the structure, and you're simply logging that via your catch.

catch (Exception e) {
      System.err.println(e);
}

You need to let that exception be thrown from the method, or catch it and call fail() with an appropriate message.

And then fix the issue of your non-parseable JSON, of course!