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method MockTimers.prototype.tick

#MockTimers.prototype.tick(milliseconds: number): void

Advances time for all mocked timers.

Note: This diverges from how setTimeout in Node.js behaves and accepts only positive numbers. In Node.js, setTimeout with negative numbers is only supported for web compatibility reasons.

The following example mocks a setTimeout function and by using .tick advances in time triggering all pending timers.

import assert from 'node:assert';
import { test } from 'node:test';

test('mocks setTimeout to be executed synchronously without having to actually wait for it', (context) => {
  const fn = context.mock.fn();

  context.mock.timers.enable({ apis: ['setTimeout'] });

  setTimeout(fn, 9999);

  assert.strictEqual(fn.mock.callCount(), 0);

  // Advance in time
  context.mock.timers.tick(9999);

  assert.strictEqual(fn.mock.callCount(), 1);
});

Alternativelly, the .tick function can be called many times

import assert from 'node:assert';
import { test } from 'node:test';

test('mocks setTimeout to be executed synchronously without having to actually wait for it', (context) => {
  const fn = context.mock.fn();
  context.mock.timers.enable({ apis: ['setTimeout'] });
  const nineSecs = 9000;
  setTimeout(fn, nineSecs);

  const twoSeconds = 3000;
  context.mock.timers.tick(twoSeconds);
  context.mock.timers.tick(twoSeconds);
  context.mock.timers.tick(twoSeconds);

  assert.strictEqual(fn.mock.callCount(), 1);
});

Advancing time using .tick will also advance the time for any Date object created after the mock was enabled (if Date was also set to be mocked).

import assert from 'node:assert';
import { test } from 'node:test';

test('mocks setTimeout to be executed synchronously without having to actually wait for it', (context) => {
  const fn = context.mock.fn();

  context.mock.timers.enable({ apis: ['setTimeout', 'Date'] });
  setTimeout(fn, 9999);

  assert.strictEqual(fn.mock.callCount(), 0);
  assert.strictEqual(Date.now(), 0);

  // Advance in time
  context.mock.timers.tick(9999);
  assert.strictEqual(fn.mock.callCount(), 1);
  assert.strictEqual(Date.now(), 9999);
});

Parameters #

#milliseconds: number

Return Type #

void

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