afterEach

AfterEach is a test lifecycle hook used in several JavaScript testing frameworks, most notably Jasmine, Mocha, and Jest. It registers a function to be executed after each test case within a test suite, providing a place to perform cleanup and reset state so that tests remain isolated from one another. The hook runs after the completion of every test, regardless of whether the test passes or fails, and typically executes before any afterAll teardown.

An afterEach callback can perform tasks such as clearing mocks, resetting global variables, releasing resources, clearing timers, or restoring environment state altered by a test. Many frameworks support asynchronous cleanup by returning a promise from the callback or by accepting a done callback; frameworks will wait for the promise to resolve or the callback to signal completion before proceeding.

In practice, afterEach complements beforeEach, which handles per-test setup, and afterAll, which handles one-time teardown after the entire suite. While the exact syntax may vary slightly between frameworks, the core idea is consistent: run cleanup code after every test to maintain test isolation.

Example usage in modern JavaScript tests: afterEach(() => { jest.clearAllMocks(); });

See also: beforeEach, afterAll, beforeAll, test hooks.