Trouble comparing time with RSpec

Question

I am using Ruby on Rails 4 and the rspec-rails gem 2.14. For a my object I would like to compare the current time with the `updated_at` object attribute after a controller action run, but I am in trouble since the spec does not pass. That is, given the following is the spec code: ``` it "updates updated_at attribute" do Timecop.freeze patch :update @article.reload expect(@article.updated_at).to eq(Time.now) end ``` When I run the above spec I get the following error: ``` Failure/Error: expect(@article.updated_at).to eq(Time.now) expected: 2013-12-05 14:42:20 UTC got: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 08:42:20 CST -06:00 (compared using ==) ``` How can I make the spec to pass? Note: I tried also the following (note the `utc` addition): ``` it "updates updated_at attribute" do Timecop.freeze patch :update @article.reload expect(@article.updated_at.utc).to eq(Time.now) end ``` but the spec still does not pass (note the "got" value difference): ``` Failure/Error: expect(@article.updated_at.utc).to eq(Time…

Accepted Answer

Ruby Time object maintains greater precision than the database does. When the value is read back from the database, it’s only preserved to microsecond precision, while the in-memory representation is precise to nanoseconds.

If you don't care about millisecond difference, you could do a to_s/to_i on both sides of your expectation

```
expect(@article.updated_at.utc.to_s).to eq(Time.now.to_s)
```

or

```
expect(@article.updated_at.utc.to_i).to eq(Time.now.to_i)
```

Refer to this for more information about why the times are different

Trouble comparing time with RSpec

Solution

Problem