To test whether two arrays have the same elements regardless of order, you can use the =~ matcher in RSpec < 2.11:

actual_array.should =~ expected_array

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If either side is an ActiveRecord scope rather than an array, you should call to_a on it first, since =~ does not play nice with scopes:

actual_scope.to_a.should =~ expected_scope.to_a

If you use RSpec >= 2.11 we recommend using the match_array or contain_exactly matchers instead of =~.
Use the eq matcher only if the order of records matters.