How can I return a new instance each time a method is invoked

[a-ayala]

I am mocking a method which returns a new instance of a class. However using willReturn will of course return the instance I pass it.

For example:

$prophecy->method()->willReturn( new \DateTime() );

I would to be able to create a new instance whenever the method is invoked as I cannot guarantee how many times it will be called.

So far I've done this using a CallbackPromise. Just wondering if there's another way, or if this is the intended way?

$prophecy->method()->willReturn( new CallbackPromise( function () { new \DateTime() } ) )

[stof]

passing a CallbackPromise won't work, as that would actually return that CallbackPromise (willReturn takes the returned value as argument, not a promise).

You should use the will() method instead. And the nice thing here is that this method accepts either a PromiseInterface or a callback (callbacks are automatically converted to a CallbackPromise). So the simple solution looks like that:

$prophecy->method()->will(function () { return new \DateTime(); });

// or even shorter with short lambdas:
$prophecy->method()->will(fn () => new \DateTime());

[a-ayala]

amazing, thank you @stof