Test Timing-Based Code With Jest Fake Timers

In real-world code we use timeouts to do things like debouncing and throttling of functions. This is really hard to test efficently and accurately with basic test runner tooling.

Jest, however, offers some Timer Mock tooling that removes most of the complexity of getting this right.

Here is a method to test:

const doSomethingAfter200ms = doSomething => {
  setTimeout(() => {
    doSomething();
  }, 200);
};

A test that shows this to work would have to observe doSomething getting called after 200ms.

The following test won't work because the expectation is evaluated before the timeout function is triggered.

describe("doSomethingAfter200ms", () => {
  test("does something after 200ms (fail)", () => {
    const doSomething = jest.fn();

    doSomethingAfter200ms(doSomething);

    expect(doSomething).toHaveBeenCalled();
  });
});

By activating jest.useFakeTimers(), we can simulate the passing of 200ms and then check that our mocked function was called.

jest.useFakeTimers();

describe("doSomethingAfter200ms", () => {
  test("does something after 200ms (pass)", () => {
    const doSomething = jest.fn();

    doSomethingAfter200ms(doSomething);

    jest.advanceTimersByTime(201);

    expect(doSomething).toHaveBeenCalled();
  });
});

Jest's function mocks and timer mocks make this possible.