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Using `it.skip()` in Mocha

Aug 4, 2023

The it.skip() function tells Mocha to skip that particular test. For example, in the following code, Mocha will not run test2.

it('test1', function() {});
it.skip('test2', function() {});
it('test3', function() {});

Running Mocha on the above file will produce the following output. Because test2 was skipped, Mocha will indicate that there's 1 "pending" test - "pending" tests are another word for skipped tests.

$ mocha ./test.js 


  ✓ test1
  - test2
  ✓ test3

  2 passing (4ms)
  1 pending

$

We recommend using skip() instead of commenting out tests. The benefit of using skip() is that Mocha can tell you when there are tests skipped via the "pending" output, whereas Mocha can't tell you when there are commented out tests.

With `describe()`

.skip() is the inverse of .only(): skip() skips the marked test, only() skips every test other than the marked test. Like only(), you can use skip() with describe() to skip a whole block of tests as follows.

// Skip all tests in 'suite'
describe.skip('suite', function() {
  it('test1', function() {});
  it('test2', function() {});
});

it('test3', function() {});

The above script produces the following output.

$ mocha ./test.js 


  ✓ test3
  suite
    - test1
    - test2


  1 passing (3ms)
  2 pending

$

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Using `it.skip()` in Mocha

With describe()

More Mocha Tutorials

With `describe()`