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c#asp.netcucumberspecflowgherkin

Specflow - Scenario outilne with data table


I had a series of scenarios that look like this:

Given these receipts:
| Amount | Date       | Company         |
| 1000   | 2016/10/25 | One Company     |
| 1200   | 2016/10/20 | Another Company |
| 1500   | 2016/10/13 | My Company      |
And delay is 15
When I calculate date of payment
Then Date of payment should be 20

Given these receipts:
| Amount | Date       | Company         |
| 1000   | 2016/10/25 | One Company     |
| 1200   | 2016/10/20 | Another Company |
| 1500   | 2016/10/13 | My Company      |
And delay is 30
When I calculate date of payment
Then Date of payment should be 15

Given these receipts:
| Amount | Date       | Company         |
| 1000   | 2016/10/25 | One Company     |
| 1200   | 2016/10/20 | Another Company |
| 1500   | 2016/10/13 | My Company      |
And delay is 45
When I calculate date of payment
Then Date of payment should be 10

So I learned about Scenario outline and I tried to make one for the above scenarios but had trouble putting in the receipts for obvious reasons:

Given these receipts: '<receipts>'
And delay is <delay>
When I calculate date of payment
Then Date of payment should be '<dateOfPayment>'

Examples:
| delay | dateOfPayment | receipts                               |
| 15    |    20         | | Amount | Date       | Company     |  |
                        | | 1000   | 2016/10/25 | one company |  |
                        | | ..............................    |  |

Given that I want the same collection of, in this case, receipts for all scenarios in my Feature how can I declare a table that will be passed at the place of '<receipts>' in the scenario outline

Maybe, should I proceed with a different approach?

---------------------------------- EDITED --------------------------------

Maybe something like this could work (but It is not implemented in Gherkin):

Given these receipts: '<receipts>'
And delay is <delay>
When I calculate date of payment
Then Date of payment should be '<dateOfPayment>'

Examples:
| delay | dateOfPayment | 
| 15    |    20         | 

Placeholder: '<receipts>'
| Amount | Date       | Company         |
| 1000   | 2016/10/25 | One Company     |
| 1200   | 2016/10/20 | Another Company |
| 1500   | 2016/10/13 | My Company      |

Solution

  • I had this silly idea: Given that the receipts does not change I could maybe provide to the Scenario Outline a Given with the actual table rather than a placeholder

    And it worked:

    Scenario Outline: payment
    Given these receipts:
    | Amount | Date       | Company         |
    | 1000   | 2016/10/25 | One Company     |
    | 1200   | 2016/10/20 | Another Company |
    | 1500   | 2016/10/13 | My Company      |
    And delay is '<delay>'
    When I calculate date of payment
    Then Date of payment should be '<dateOfPayment>'
    
    Examples: 
    | delay | dateOfPayment |
    | 15    | 20            |
    | 30    | 10            |
    | 45    | 5             |
    

    If you are, as I am, working in .Net with Specflow and c# specflow will generate this method for the Givenwith the table:

    [Given(@"these receipts:")]
    public void GivenTheseReceipts()
    {            
        ScenarioContext.Current.Pending();
    }
    

    Don't worry, just add the table parameter, and the table will be passed as parameter as it does with a normal scenario:

    [Given(@"these receipts:")]
    public void GivenTheseReceipts(Table table)
    {
        var receipts = table.CreateSet<Receipt>(); // you can even create a set given you have defined the Receipt class
    }
    
    public class Receipt
    {
        public decimal Amount { get; set; }
        public DateTime Date { get; set; }
        public string Company { get; set; }
    }
    

    ------------------------- EDITED -------------------------------------

    It seems as it would have also worked with Background:

    Background: 
    Given these receipts:
    | Amount | Date       | Company         |
    | 1000   | 2016/10/25 | One Company     |
    | 1200   | 2016/10/20 | Another Company |
    | 1500   | 2016/10/13 | My Company      |
    
    Scenario Outline: payment
    And delay is '<delay>'
    When I calculate date of payment
    Then Date of payment should be '<dateOfPayment>'
    
    Examples: 
    | delay | dateOfPayment |
    | 15    | 20            |
    | 30    | 10            |
    | 45    | 5             |
    

    Now, it's only a matter of style.

    Notice also that Background will be called before all other scenarios you may have in your Feature file.