Why does RSpec report a syntax error in this spec? - ruby-on-rails

Question

When trying to run rspec I keep getting the error message below when running bundle exec rspec spec/models/user_spec.rb command. I have searched similar issues and have seen suggestions for entering in exact paths and making sure I was in the root directory. Neither have worked. Additionally, I have tried running a bundle install. I apologize if this is a rudimentary question. I'm a total noob. Thanks in advance for the help.
/Users/sethjones/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p481/gems/rspec-core-2.13.1/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:819:in `load': /Users/sethjones/rails_projects/sample_app/spec/models/user_spec.rb:6: syntax error, unexpected '}', expecting => (SyntaxError)
/Users/sethjones/rails_projects/sample_app/spec/models/user_spec.rb:20: syntax error, unexpected end-of-input, expecting keyword_end
from /Users/sethjones/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p481/gems/rspec-core-2.13.1/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:819:in `block in load_spec_files'
from /Users/sethjones/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p481/gems/rspec-core-2.13.1/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:819:in `each'
from /Users/sethjones/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p481/gems/rspec-core-2.13.1/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:819:in `load_spec_files'
from /Users/sethjones/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p481/gems/rspec-core-2.13.1/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:22:in `run'
from /Users/sethjones/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p481/gems/rspec-core-2.13.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:80:in `run'
from /Users/sethjones/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p481/gems/rspec-core-2.13.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:17:in `block in autorun'
My gemfile is as follows:
source 'https://rubygems.org'
ruby '2.0.0'
gem 'rails', '4.0.5'
gem 'bootstrap-sass', '2.3.2.0'
gem 'sprockets', '2.11.0'
gem 'bcrypt-ruby', '3.1.2'
gem 'faker', '1.1.2'
gem 'will_paginate', '3.0.4'
gem 'bootstrap-will_paginate', '0.0.9'
group :development, :test do
gem 'sqlite3', '1.3.8'
gem 'rspec-rails', '2.13.1'
# The following optional lines are part of the advanced setup. # gem ’guard-rspec’, ’2.5.0’
# gem ’spork-rails’, ’4.0.0’
# gem ’guard-spork’, ’1.5.0’
# gem ’childprocess’, ’0.3.6’
end
group :test do
gem 'selenium-webdriver', '2.35.1'
gem 'capybara', '2.1.0'
gem 'factory_girl_rails', '4.2.0'
gem 'cucumber-rails', '1.4.0', :require => false
gem 'database_cleaner', github: 'bmabey/database_cleaner'
gem 'growl', '1.0.3'
# Uncomment these lines on Linux.
# gem ’libnotify’, ’0.8.0'gem i
# Uncomment these lines on Windows.
# gem ’rb-notifu’, ’0.0.4’
# gem ’wdm’, ’0.1.0’
end
gem 'sass-rails', '4.0.1'
gem 'uglifier', '2.1.1'
gem 'coffee-rails', '4.0.1'
gem 'jquery-rails', '3.0.4'
gem 'turbolinks', '1.1.1'
gem 'jbuilder', '1.0.2'
group :doc do
gem 'sdoc', '0.3.20', require: false
end
group :production do
gem 'pg', '0.15.1'
gem 'rails_12factor', '0.0.2'
end
And my user_spec.rb file looks like this:
require 'spec_helper'
describe User do
before do
{ #user = User.new(name: "Example User", email: "user#example.com") }
end
subject { #user }
it { should respond_to(:name) }
it { should respond_to(:email) }
it { should be_valid }
describe "when name is not present" do
before { #user.name = " "}
it { should_not be_valid }
end
end
Thanks again!

Answer 1

The block you're passing to before is surrounded by both do/end and curly braces. Since the curlies don't follow a method invocation, Ruby interprets them as a hash, and expects a => before the closing curly. Just remove the curlies.