F# Usage

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F# usage

FluentAssertions was made with C# in mind. While it can be used from F#, the experience will not always be as intended.

For a better F# experience we encourage F# developers to try out Faqt, an assertion library inspired by FluentAssertions and made specifically for F#.

Some of the awkwardness you might hit with FluentAssertions when using F# is:

  • To aid F#’s overload resolution, you often have to cast subject values. This does not work in all cases and will only give you a subset of assertions. For example:

    let x = [1; 2]
x.Should().Contain(1, "") // Overload resolution error for "Should"
(x :> seq<_>).Should().Contain(1, "") // OK, but only gives access to GenericCollectionAssertions<_>

    The need to cast will break your fluent chains, defeating some of the purpose of FluentAssertions.

  • Sometimes not even casting will solve the issue, and you will have to forgo Should entirely and instead directly construct the correct assertion type. For example:

    let x = dict ["A", 1; "B", 2]
 
// All of these give overload resolution errors for "Should"
x.Should().ContainKey(1, "")
(x :> IDictionary<_,_>).Should().ContainKey(1, "") 
(x :> seq<KeyValuePair<_,_>>).Should().Contain(KeyValuePair("A", 1), "")
 
// You have to construct the desired assertion directly
GenericDictionaryAssertions<_, _, _>(x).ContainKey("A", "")
GenericCollectionAssertions<_, _, _>(x).Contain(KeyValuePair("A", 1), "")

    As with casting, the need to construct the assertion directly will break your fluent chains, defeating one of the key points of FluentAssertions.

  • As can be seen above, the because parameter cannot be omitted when used from F# (#2225). Adding overloads with a fixed because is deemed out of scope for the main FluentAssertions package since it would double the API surface.
  • Several assertions (specifically, those that accept an Action<_>) require an explicit ignore when used from F# (#2226).