RSpec/FactoryGirl Stack level too deep

Question

I'm having trouble with what looks like a very simple problem.

So I have 3 models: Foo, Bar, and Lol

• Foo has_many Bars
• Lol has_many Bars
• Bar belongs_to Foo & Lol

Here's the code that's giving me errors.

spec/factories/foos.rb

FactoryGirl.define do
  factory :foo do
    after(:create) do |foo|
      create_list(:bar, 1, foo: foo)
    end
  end
end

spec/factories/bars.rb

FactoryGirl.define do
  factory :bar do
    foo
    lol
  end
end

spec/factories/lols.rb

FactoryGirl.define do
  factory :lol do
    after(:create) do |lol|
      create_list(:bar, 1, lol: lol)
    end
  end
end

I'm trying to get this test to pass

spec/models/foo_spec.rb

require 'spec_helper'
describe Foo do
  it "works" do
    foo = FactoryGirl.create(:foo)
    puts foo.bars
    foo.bars.each {|bar| puts bar.lol}
    foo.should_not be_nil
  end
end

Answer 1

You have a lot of recursion going on with your current factories setup which is causing the Stack level too deep error.

In short, when you call foo = FactoryGirl.create(:foo)

factory :foo => create_list(:bar, 1, foo: foo) => factory :bar => factory :foo => create_list(:bar, 1, foo: foo) ...... keeps looping

Same for lol.

You would need to refactor your code. One possible solution is as below:

Change your factories as:

## spec/factories/foos.rb

FactoryGirl.define do
  factory :foo do
  end
end

## spec/factories/bars.rb

FactoryGirl.define do
  factory :bar do
    foo
    lol
  end
end

## spec/factories/lols.rb

FactoryGirl.define do
  factory :lol do
  end
end

Update your example as below:

## spec/models/foo_spec.rb

require 'spec_helper'
describe Foo do
  it "works" do
    foo = FactoryGirl.create(:bar).foo        
    puts foo.bars
    foo.bars.each {|bar| puts bar.lol}
    foo.should_not be_nil
  end
end