Spock - Testing Exceptions with Data Tables

Question

How can exceptions be tested in a nice way (e.g. data tables) with Spock?

Example: Having a method validateUser that can throw exceptions with different messages or no exception if the user is valid.

The specification class itself:

class User { String userName }

class SomeSpec extends spock.lang.Specification {

    ...tests go here...

    private validateUser(User user) {
        if (!user) throw new Exception ('no user')
        if (!user.userName) throw new Exception ('no userName')
    }
}

Variant 1

This one is working but the real intention is cluttered by all the when / then labels and the repeated calls of validateUser(user).

    def 'validate user - the long way - working but not nice'() {
        when:
        def user = new User(userName: 'tester')
        validateUser(user)

        then:
        noExceptionThrown()

        when:
        user = new User(userName: null)
        validateUser(user)

        then:
        def ex = thrown(Exception)
        ex.message == 'no userName'

        when:
        user = null
        validateUser(user)

        then:
        ex = thrown(Exception)
        ex.message == 'no user'
    }

Variant 2

This one is not working because of this error raised by Spock at compile time:

Exception conditions are only allowed in 'then' blocks

    def 'validate user - data table 1 - not working'() {
        when:
        validateUser(user)

        then:
        check()

        where:
        user                         || check
        new User(userName: 'tester') || { noExceptionThrown() }
        new User(userName: null)     || { Exception ex = thrown(); ex.message == 'no userName' }
        null                         || { Exception ex = thrown(); ex.message == 'no user' }
    }

Variant 3

This one is not working because of this error raised by Spock at compile time:

Exception conditions are only allowed as top-level statements

    def 'validate user - data table 2 - not working'() {
        when:
        validateUser(user)

        then:
        if (expectedException) {
            def ex = thrown(expectedException)
            ex.message == expectedMessage
        } else {
            noExceptionThrown()
        }

        where:
        user                         || expectedException | expectedMessage
        new User(userName: 'tester') || null              | null
        new User(userName: null)     || Exception         | 'no userName'
        null                         || Exception         | 'no user'
    }

Answer 1

The recommended solution is to have two methods: one that tests the good cases, and another that tests the bad cases. Then both methods can make use of data tables.

Example:

class SomeSpec extends Specification {

    class User { String userName }

    def 'validate valid user'() {
        when:
        validateUser(user)

        then:
        noExceptionThrown()

        where:
        user << [
                new User(userName: 'tester'),
                new User(userName: 'joe')]
    }

    def 'validate invalid user'() {
        when:
        validateUser(user)

        then:
        def error = thrown(expectedException)
        error.message == expectedMessage

        where:
        user                     || expectedException | expectedMessage
        new User(userName: null) || Exception         | 'no userName'
        new User(userName: '')   || Exception         | 'no userName'
        null                     || Exception         | 'no user'
    }

    private validateUser(User user) {
        if (!user) throw new Exception('no user')
        if (!user.userName) throw new Exception('no userName')
    }

}