Search code examples
formatcucumberbddgherkin

Correct format for Cucumber scenarios

I read in a Cucumber book that the format for a Cucumber feature scenario should be that of a Gherkin scenario, i.e.: Given-When-Then

To simplify things, let's omit the And elements that can appear in a scenario.

I have often seen in my current project several scenarios defined like this: Scenario X Given-Then-When-Then

Is this format correct? Cucumber accepts it, but is it good practice?

Solution

  • The Given, When, and Then keywords are actually aliases of the same method, so they can be used interchangeably. Gherkinis just providing more human-readable hooks to write scenarios.

    As far as a Given/Then/When/Then sequence in a scenario, that'll work, but it does seem a bit unusual. I realize that you're trying to keep your question simple, but this sounds like a possible case for using And or But. For example: Given/And/When/Then or Given/But/When/Then. And FWIW, you can use * to start a step if you want to avoid the semantic gymnastics of Given/When/Then/And/But