Making a mocked method return an argument that was passed to it

You can create an Answer in Mockito. Let's assume, we have an interface named Application with a method myFunction.

public interface Application {
  public String myFunction(String abc);
}

Here is the test method with a Mockito answer:

public void testMyFunction() throws Exception {
  Application mock = mock(Application.class);
  when(mock.myFunction(anyString())).thenAnswer(new Answer<String>() {
    @Override
    public String answer(InvocationOnMock invocation) throws Throwable {
      Object[] args = invocation.getArguments();
      return (String) args[0];
    }
  });

  assertEquals("someString",mock.myFunction("someString"));
  assertEquals("anotherString",mock.myFunction("anotherString"));
}

Since Mockito 1.9.5 and Java 8, you can also use a lambda expression:

when(myMock.myFunction(anyString())).thenAnswer(i -> i.getArguments()[0]);

If you have Mockito 1.9.5 or higher, there is a new static method that can make the Answer object for you. You need to write something like

import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
import static org.mockito.AdditionalAnswers.returnsFirstArg;

when(myMock.myFunction(anyString())).then(returnsFirstArg());

or alternatively

doAnswer(returnsFirstArg()).when(myMock).myFunction(anyString());

Note that the returnsFirstArg() method is static in the AdditionalAnswers class, which is new to Mockito 1.9.5; so you'll need the right static import.

With Java 8 it is possible to create a one-line answer even with older version of Mockito:

when(myMock.myFunction(anyString()).then(i -> i.getArgumentAt(0, String.class));

Of course this is not as useful as using AdditionalAnswers suggested by David Wallace, but might be useful if you want to transform argument "on the fly".

I had a very similar problem. The goal was to mock a service that persists Objects and can return them by their name. The service looks like this:

public class RoomService {
    public Room findByName(String roomName) {...}
    public void persist(Room room) {...}
}

The service mock uses a map to store the Room instances.

RoomService roomService = mock(RoomService.class);
final Map<String, Room> roomMap = new HashMap<String, Room>();

// mock for method persist
doAnswer(new Answer<Void>() {
    @Override
    public Void answer(InvocationOnMock invocation) throws Throwable {
        Object[] arguments = invocation.getArguments();
        if (arguments != null && arguments.length > 0 && arguments[0] != null) {
            Room room = (Room) arguments[0];
            roomMap.put(room.getName(), room);
        }
        return null;
    }
}).when(roomService).persist(any(Room.class));

// mock for method findByName
when(roomService.findByName(anyString())).thenAnswer(new Answer<Room>() {
    @Override
    public Room answer(InvocationOnMock invocation) throws Throwable {
        Object[] arguments = invocation.getArguments();
        if (arguments != null && arguments.length > 0 && arguments[0] != null) {
            String key = (String) arguments[0];
            if (roomMap.containsKey(key)) {
                return roomMap.get(key);
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
});

We can now run our tests on this mock. For example:

String name = "room";
Room room = new Room(name);
roomService.persist(room);
assertThat(roomService.findByName(name), equalTo(room));
assertNull(roomService.findByName("none"));

With Java 8, Steve's answer can become

public void testMyFunction() throws Exception {
    Application mock = mock(Application.class);
    when(mock.myFunction(anyString())).thenAnswer(
    invocation -> {
        Object[] args = invocation.getArguments();
        return args[0];
    });

    assertEquals("someString", mock.myFunction("someString"));
    assertEquals("anotherString", mock.myFunction("anotherString"));
}

EDIT: Even shorter:

public void testMyFunction() throws Exception {
    Application mock = mock(Application.class);
    when(mock.myFunction(anyString())).thenAnswer(
        invocation -> invocation.getArgument(0));

    assertEquals("someString", mock.myFunction("someString"));
    assertEquals("anotherString", mock.myFunction("anotherString"));
}