[java] Hamcrest compare collections

I'm trying to compare 2 lists:

assertThat(actual.getList(), is(Matchers.containsInAnyOrder(expectedList)));

But idea

java: no suitable method found for assertThat(java.util.List<Agent>,org.hamcrest.Matcher<java.lang.Iterable<? extends model.Agents>>)
method org.junit.Assert.<T>assertThat(T,org.hamcrest.Matcher<T>) is not applicable
  (no instance(s) of type variable(s) T exist so that argument type org.hamcrest.Matcher<java.lang.Iterable<? extends model.Agents>> conforms to formal parameter type org.hamcrest.Matcher<T>)
method org.junit.Assert.<T>assertThat(java.lang.String,T,org.hamcrest.Matcher<T>) is not applicable
  (cannot instantiate from arguments because actual and formal argument lists differ in length)

How should I write it?

With existing Hamcrest libraries (as of v.2.0.0.0) you are forced to use Collection.toArray() method on your Collection in order to use containsInAnyOrder Matcher. Far nicer would be to add this as a separate method to org.hamcrest.Matchers:

public static <T> org.hamcrest.Matcher<java.lang.Iterable<? extends T>> containsInAnyOrder(Collection<T> items) {
    return org.hamcrest.collection.IsIterableContainingInAnyOrder.<T>containsInAnyOrder((T[]) items.toArray());
}

Actually I ended up adding this method to my custom test library and use it to increase readability of my test cases (due to less verbosity).

To compare two lists with the order preserved use,

assertThat(actualList, contains("item1","item2"));

For list of objects you may need something like this:

import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.contains;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.allOf;
import static org.hamcrest.beans.HasPropertyWithValue.hasProperty;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;

@Test
@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public void test_returnsList(){

    arrange();
  
    List<MyBean> myList = act();
    
    assertThat(myList , contains(allOf(hasProperty("id",          is(7L)), 
                                       hasProperty("name",        is("testName1")),
                                       hasProperty("description", is("testDesc1"))),
                                 allOf(hasProperty("id",          is(11L)), 
                                       hasProperty("name",        is("testName2")),
                                       hasProperty("description", is("testDesc2")))));
}

Use containsInAnyOrder if you do not want to check the order of the objects.

P.S. Any help to avoid the warning that is suppresed will be really appreciated.

To complement @Joe's answer:

Hamcrest provides you with three main methods to match a list:

contains Checks for matching all the elements taking in count the order, if the list has more or less elements, it will fail

containsInAnyOrder Checks for matching all the elements and it doesn't matter the order, if the list has more or less elements, will fail

hasItems Checks just for the specified objects it doesn't matter if the list has more

hasItem Checks just for one object it doesn't matter if the list has more

All of them can receive a list of objects and use equals method for comparation or can be mixed with other matchers like @borjab mentioned:

assertThat(myList , contains(allOf(hasProperty("id", is(7L)), 
                                   hasProperty("name", is("testName1")),
                                   hasProperty("description", is("testDesc1"))),
                             allOf(hasProperty("id", is(11L)), 
                                   hasProperty("name", is("testName2")),
                                   hasProperty("description", is("testDesc2")))));

http://hamcrest.org/JavaHamcrest/javadoc/1.3/org/hamcrest/Matchers.html#contains(E...) http://hamcrest.org/JavaHamcrest/javadoc/1.3/org/hamcrest/Matchers.html#containsInAnyOrder(java.util.Collection) http://hamcrest.org/JavaHamcrest/javadoc/1.3/org/hamcrest/Matchers.html#hasItems(T...)

Make sure that the Objects in your list have equals() defined on them. Then

assertThat(generatedList, is(equalTo(expectedList)));

works.

List<Long> actual = Arrays.asList(1L, 2L);
List<Long> expected = Arrays.asList(2L, 1L);
assertThat(actual, containsInAnyOrder(expected.toArray()));

Shorter version of @Joe's answer without redundant parameters.