Inconsistency in `rejects.toThrow()`

[Yaojian]

🐛 Bug Report

The doc says the argument of toThrow() can be a class for the error, it works when a promise throws an Error instance, but fails when the promise throws a custom object.

To Reproduce

describe('When a promise throws an expression, rejects.toThrow should match the expression by its type', () => {
    it('when the expression is an error', async () => {
        const p = new Promise(() => {
            throw new Error('some-info');
        });
        await expect(p).rejects.toThrow(Error); // passed
    });
    it('when the expression is a custom object', async () => {
        class Exception {
            constructor(public readonly message: string) {
            }
        }

        const p = new Promise(() => {
            throw new Exception('some-info');
        });
        await expect(p).rejects.toThrow(Exception); // failed
    });
});

The first test passes, while the second test fails with the following message:

Expected the function to throw an error of type:
  "Exception"
But it didn't throw anything.

Expected behavior

Both the above two tests pass.

[SimenB]

It passes with the synchronous version, it's just rejects which fails. It also passes if Exception extends Error when using rejects. So it seems to be a bug somehow with rejects.

@BetterCallSKY ideas?

[Yaojian]

May be the test fails because createMatcher checks rejects using isError while Exception is NOT a subclass of Error ?

[peterdanis]

Behavior for promises changed in #5670. My understanding of toThrow matcher is that it should only pass in case of Error.

[peterdanis]

To be honest, toThrow matcher doesn't make sense for promises. They just reject when you throw inside them, right?

[lstkz]

@peterdanis
toThrow doesn't make sense for resolves, you can check discussion in #6678

[peterdanis]

I know, before #5670 even expect(someSuccesfulPromise()).resolves.toThrow() passed the test. Nonsense ofcourse.

Therefore I've tried to check, whether object checked in the toThrow matcher (for promises only) is an "error-like" object, otherwise the toThrow matcher would became the same as toEqual. I see in your PR, that assuming "error-like" object was not so good idea :)

But does it make sense to check whether a promise "throws"? Normally one does not use throw in promise, and even if something "throws" inside a promise (e.g. an inner function), it will just reject to thrown value. Afaik promise can only resolve/reject, can't throw.

[MarcusPope]

This is also a problem when throwing objects in async/await that are not Error instances and expecting the toThrow() default with no arguments:

test("Bug in jest", async () => {
    expect(() => {
      throw "this is fine";
    }).toThrow();

    await expect(
      (async () => {
        throw new Error("this is fine too");
      })()
    ).rejects.toThrow();

    await expect(
      (async () => {
        throw "this is not fine";
      })()
    ).rejects.toThrow(); // FAILS TEST
  });

[github-actions]

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