Pester having problems with else statement - powershell

Question

Hey guys so I have this code (Powershell v5), and when I run the pester for it, the else statement is not being detected. Runs perfectly fine on powershell v7 but need it to run on v5.
Source Code
Function 'INeedHelp'
$array= [Systems.Collections.ArrayList]::new()
$GettingInfo= #Function that's calling an object with properties
$String= 'Example'
$x= $null
$x= $GettingInfo | Where-Object { $._item -like "*$String*" -or $._ $thing like
"*$String*"}
if($x){
$array.Add($x)
if($array.thing -like *Example*) {
$array | Add-Member -membertype NoteProperty -Name Match -Value $true
}
}
else {
return 'fail'
}
Pester
Mock 'Function' {
return[PSCustomObject]#(
item = 'hello'
thing= 'bye'
)
}
It 'Should be able to get the failure result'
$Result= INeedHelp
$Result | Should -be 'fail'
The error is expected 'fail' but got #{item= 'hello'; thing= 'bye'}

Answer 1

You are Mocking the INeedHelp function so that it always returns an object with two properties. You'll never get a test to therefore return fail because your test will always invoke the Mock and this only returns one result.
If the purpose of your test is to test the INeedHelp function, then Mocking it is the wrong approach as the real code for the function never gets executed.
Instead, based on the code you've put above (which has quite a few syntax errors FYI) you want to be creating a Mock of whatever the function is that returns values to the $GettingInfo variable. You can have different Mocks of this function return different values at different points of your test script and in doing so can ensure that there are tests that enter both parts of the function's if statement.
Here's a working example to show you what I mean:
function Get-InfoFunction {}
function Example {
$GettingInfo = Get-InfoFunction
if ($GettingInfo -is [string]) {
return 'string'
}
else {
return 'fail'
}
}
Describe 'MyTests' {
Context 'String input' {
BeforeAll {
Mock Get-InfoFunction { Return 'hello' }
}
It 'Should return string' {
Example | Should -Be 'string'
}
}
Context 'Non-string input' {
BeforeAll {
Mock Get-InfoFunction { Return 7 }
}
It 'Should return fail' {
Example | Should -Be 'fail'
}
}
}