diff --git a/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 0664150..8db2420 100644
--- a/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ set(TEST_NAMES
     test_serialize_file
     test_parse_unicode
     test_error_detection
+    test_format_error
 )
 
 CHECK_CXX_COMPILER_FLAG("-Wall" COMPILER_SUPPORTS_WALL)
diff --git a/tests/test_format_error.cpp b/tests/test_format_error.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36cb171
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_format_error.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+#define BOOST_TEST_MODULE "test_value"
+#ifdef UNITTEST_FRAMEWORK_LIBRARY_EXIST
+#include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp>
+#else
+#define BOOST_TEST_NO_LIB
+#include <boost/test/included/unit_test.hpp>
+#endif
+#include <toml.hpp>
+
+// to check it successfully compiles. it does not check the formatted string.
+
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(test_1_value)
+{
+    toml::value val(42);
+
+    {
+        const std::string pretty_error =
+            toml::format_error("[error] test error", val, "this is a value");
+        std::cout << pretty_error << std::endl;
+    }
+
+    {
+        const std::string pretty_error =
+            toml::format_error("[error] test error", val, "this is a value",
+                               std::vector<std::string>{"this is a hint"});
+        std::cout << pretty_error << std::endl;
+    }
+}
+
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(test_2_values)
+{
+    toml::value v1(42);
+    toml::value v2(3.14);
+    {
+        const std::string pretty_error =
+            toml::format_error("[error] test error with two values",
+                               v1, "this is the answer",
+                               v2, "this is the pi");
+        std::cout << pretty_error << std::endl;
+    }
+
+    {
+        const std::string pretty_error =
+            toml::format_error("[error] test error with two values",
+                               v1, "this is the answer",
+                               v2, "this is the pi",
+                               std::vector<std::string>{"hint"});
+        std::cout << pretty_error << std::endl;
+    }
+}
+
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(test_3_values)
+{
+    toml::value v1(42);
+    toml::value v2(3.14);
+    toml::value v3("foo");
+    {
+        const std::string pretty_error =
+            toml::format_error("[error] test error with two values",
+                               v1, "this is the answer",
+                               v2, "this is the pi",
+                               v3, "this is a meta-syntactic variable");
+        std::cout << pretty_error << std::endl;
+    }
+
+    {
+        const std::string pretty_error =
+            toml::format_error("[error] test error with two values",
+                               v1, "this is the answer",
+                               v2, "this is the pi",
+                               v3, "this is a meta-syntactic variable",
+                               std::vector<std::string>{"hint 1", "hint 2"});
+        std::cout << pretty_error << std::endl;
+    }
+}