Maybe in the past you stumbled over the two different approaches to setup your test variables. One way is the more programmatical approach by using instance variables, usually initialized in a before block.

  before do
    @user = User.create username: 'foo'
  end

The other option is let.

  let(:user) { User.create username: 'foo' }

If you have seen this and you are still not sure, when to use instance variables and when let, then you will in the following examples.

For this example I have chosen a simple setup in which I want to create 2 users and check their attributes.

To properly reset the database with DatabaseCleaner opens a new window after each test, you can use this snippet below:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
  end

  config.around(:each) do |example|
    DatabaseCleaner.cleaning do
      example.run
    end
  end

  config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!
end

My setup with instance variables looks like this:

RSpec.describe User, type: :model do
  before do
    @user = User.create email: 'foo@ombulabs.com', username: 'foofoo'
    @user_2 = User.create email: 'bar@ombulabs.com', username: 'barbar'
  end

  it 'check user username' do
    expect(@user.username).to eq('foofoo')
  end

  it 'check user_2 email' do
    expect(@user_2.email).to eq('bar@ombulabs.com')
  end

  it 'combined test that checks all users' do
    expect(@user.email).to eq('foo@ombulabs.com')
    expect(@user_2.username).to eq('barbar')
  end
end

And the setup with let would look like this:

RSpec.describe User, type: :model do
  let(:user) { User.create email: 'foo@ombulabs.com', username: 'foofoo' }
  let(:user_2) { User.create email: 'bar@ombulabs.com', username: 'barbar' }

  it 'check user username' do
    expect(user.username).to eq('foofoo')
  end

  it 'check user_2 email' do
    expect(user_2.email).to eq('bar@ombulabs.com')
  end

  it 'combined test that checks all users' do
    expect(user.email).to eq('foo@ombulabs.com')
    expect(user_2.username).to eq('barbar')
  end
end

So let’s run both specs separately and have a look on the output.

$ bin/rspec spec/models/user_instance_spec.rb
...

Finished in 0.087 seconds (files took 2.87 seconds to load)
3 examples, 0 failures

$ bin/rspec spec/models/user_let_spec.rb
...

Finished in 0.06692 seconds (files took 3.06 seconds to load)
3 examples, 0 failures

What we already can see is that the let-tests are faster.

If we have a look at the test logs, we can see why that is.

Log output of user_instance_spec.rb:

SQL (2.6ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('foo@ombulabs.com', 'foofoo', '2016-01-22 16:44:42', '2016-01-22 16:44:42')
SQL (0.3ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('bar@ombulabs.com', 'barbar', '2016-01-22 16:44:42', '2016-01-22 16:44:42')
SQL (0.5ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('foo@ombulabs.com', 'foofoo', '2016-01-22 16:44:42', '2016-01-22 16:44:42')
SQL (0.4ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('bar@ombulabs.com', 'barbar', '2016-01-22 16:44:42', '2016-01-22 16:44:42')
SQL (0.3ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('foo@ombulabs.com', 'foofoo', '2016-01-22 16:44:42', '2016-01-22 16:44:42')
SQL (0.3ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('bar@ombulabs.com', 'barbar', '2016-01-22 16:44:42', '2016-01-22 16:44:42')

As we can see here, that apparently for each of my tests all records are being created. This is not the case for let examples, if we have a look at the log output.

Log output of user_let_spec.rb:

SQL (0.7ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('foo@ombulabs.com', 'foofoo', '2016-01-22 16:47:45', '2016-01-22 16:47:45')
SQL (0.4ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('bar@ombulabs.com', 'barbar', '2016-01-22 16:47:45', '2016-01-22 16:47:45')
SQL (0.3ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('foo@ombulabs.com', 'foofoo', '2016-01-22 16:47:45', '2016-01-22 16:47:45')
SQL (0.3ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('bar@ombulabs.com', 'barbar', '2016-01-22 16:47:45', '2016-01-22 16:47:45')

As we can see in the log output, we count 6 SQL Inserts for the instance example and just 4 SQL Inserts for the let example. This is because the variables configured with let will be loaded if we directly call them. This behavior is called lazy loading and forgives small mistakes when writing tests.

If we now have a closer look at the instance variable example, you see there the use of before. This is the default RSpec behavior and actually translates to before(:each). This means the before block gets executed before every single test. If you have a really complex test setup in which you use a before(:each), you are most likely wasting a lot of time setting up your tests.

For the next example I’m going to use before(:all) to see what changes. So my before block looks now like this:

  before(:all) do
    @user = User.create email: 'foo@ombulabs.com', username: 'foofoo'
    @user_2 = User.create email: 'bar@ombulabs.com', username: 'barbar'
  end

And the log output of my spec is the following:

$ bin/rspec spec/models/user_instance_before_all_spec.rb
...

Finished in 0.06128 seconds (files took 3.68 seconds to load)
3 examples, 0 failures

My test.log gives me the following output:

SQL (13.2ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('foo@ombulabs.com', 'foofoo', '2016-01-22 16:48:31', '2016-01-22 16:48:31')
SQL (5.2ms)  INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `username`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('bar@ombulabs.com', 'barbar', '2016-01-22 16:48:31', '2016-01-22 16:48:31')

So basically the before(:all) block ensures that we are only creating everything inside this once. The before(:all) can save you some time, when executing tests that need the exact same setup, otherwise I prefer to use the let syntax because it’s easier to read.

Another great benefit of let is the flexible redefinition of variables to change a most likely complex setup. You just need to change a let variable within a context block and you are able to use the exact setup with different variables just by changing one line.

RSpec.describe User, type: :model do
  let(:name)    { 'OmbuLabs' }
  let!(:user)   { User.create email: 'foo@ombulabs.com', username: name }
  let!(:user_2) { User.create email: 'bar@ombulabs.com', username: 'barbar' }

  it 'check user username' do
    expect(user.username).to eq('OmbuLabs')
  end

  context 'ombushop username' do
    let(:name) { 'OmbuShop' }

    it 'check user username' do
      expect(user.username).to eq('OmbuShop')
    end
  end
end

Benefits with let:

• Lazy loaded variables
• Faster than before(:each), slower than before(:all)
• Better readability
• Flexible usage

Benefits with instance variables:

• Useful for tests that need just one simple setup with a before(:all)

Let’s sum it up, if your test setup allows it, use instance variables in a before(:all) block, otherwise I recommend using let.