Creating Fakes

Natural fakes

The common way to create a fake object is by using the A.Fake syntax, for example:

var foo = A.Fake<IFoo>();

This will return a faked object that is an actual instance of the type specified (IFoo in this case).

You can also create a collection of fakes by writing:

var foos = A.CollectionOfFake<Foo>(10);

For cases where the type to fake isn't statically known, non-generic methods are also available. These are usually only required when writing extensions for FakeItEasy, so they live in the FakeItEasy.Sdk namespace:

using FakeItEasy.Sdk;
var type = GetTypeOfFake();
object fake = Create.Fake(type);
IList<object> fakes = Create.CollectionOfFake(type, 10);

Explicit Creation Options

When creating fakes you can, through a fluent interface, specify options for how the fake should be created:

  • Specify arguments for the constructor of the faked type.
  • Specify additional interfaces that the fake should implement.
  • Assign additional custom attributes to the faked type.
  • Cause a fake to have strict mocking semantics.
  • Configure all of a fake's methods to use their original implementation.
  • Create a fake that wraps another object.
  • Specify a recorder for wrapping fakes.


// Specifying arguments for constructor using expression. This is refactoring friendly!
// The constructor seen here is never actually invoked. It is an expression and it's purpose
// is purely to communicate the constructor arguments which will be extracted from it
var foo = A.Fake<FooClass>(x => x.WithArgumentsForConstructor(() => new FooClass("foo", "bar")));

// Specifying arguments for constructor using IEnumerable<object>.
var foo = A.Fake<FooClass>(x => x.WithArgumentsForConstructor(new object[] { "foo", "bar" }));

// Specifying additional interfaces to be implemented. Among other uses,
// this can help when a fake skips members because they have been
// explicitly implemented on the class being faked.
var foo = A.Fake<FooClass>(x => x.Implements(typeof(IFoo)));
// or
var foo = A.Fake<FooClass>(x => x.Implements<IFoo>());

// Assigning custom attributes to the faked type.
// foo's type should have "FooAttribute"

// Create wrapper - unconfigured calls will be forwarded to wrapped
var wrapped = new FooClass("foo", "bar");
var foo = A.Fake<IFoo>(x => x.Wrapping(wrapped));

Implicit Creation Options

Implicit creation options are available, equivalent in power to the explicit creation options mentioned above.

Unnatural fakes

For those accustomed to Moq there is an alternative way of creating fakes through the new Fake<T> syntax. The fake provides a fluent interface for configuring the faked object:

var fake = new Fake<IFoo>();
fake.CallsTo(x => x.Bar("some argument")).Returns("some return value");

var foo = fake.FakeObject;

For an alternative look at migrating from Moq to FakeItEasy, see Daniel Marbach's blog post that talks about Migration from Moq to FakeItEasy with Resharper Search Patterns.