Python - test a property throws exception

Since Python 2.7 and 3.1 assertRaises() can be used as a context manager. See here for Python 2 and here for Python3.

So you can write your test with the with instruction like this:

def test_to_check_exception_is_thrown(self):
    c = Class()
    with self.assertRaises(NameError):
        c.name = "Name"

assertRaises expects a callable object. You can create a function and pass it:

obj = Class()
def setNameTest():
    obj.name = "Name"        
self.assertRaises(NameError, setNameTest)

Another possibility is to use setattr:

self.assertRaises(NameError, setattr, obj, "name", "Name")

Your original code raises a syntax error because assignment is a statement and cannot be placed inside an expression.

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