Selenium java testNG: Is it possible to use dataprovider data partially in testng test method

Question

I am new to Page-Object model automation using selenium and java. I am using the Page Object model and have each page as a single class and the actions in that page as methods.Using excel to keep read test data. I have a test for searching for client using various parameters like client number, policy number, surname, firstname, webrefernce, email eand many more...... Now I have to provide all parameters in method signature otherwise test is failing with dataprovider mismatch error. I have a GetData method which provide string array from excelsheet specified.

Is it possible to make parameters optional so that I can specify only the parameters required for that particular test in the test method's signature.? In actual test there are 15 parameters and additional combinations. (If this is not possible, I have to split the data in to 16 different tab and define data providers for each tests separately). Or any other way to achieve this? Thanks

Current code:

@DataProvider(name="ClientSearchData")
	public String[][] getTestData() {
		String[][] testRecords = getData("TestData_igo4.xlsx","ClientSearch");
		return testRecords;
	}	

	@BeforeTest
	public void setUp() {
		init();			
	}	

	@Test(dataProvider="ClientSearchData")
	public void verifyClientSearchByClientNumber(String clientnumber, String policynumber, String surname, String webreference, String email) {
        
	//code for search by clientnumber

	}

	@Test(dataProvider="ClientSearchData")	

	public void verifyClientSearchByPolicyNumber(String clientnumber, String policynumber, String surname, String webreference, String email) {
        
	//Code for search by policynumber

	}

I want something like the following to avoid unnecessary parameters for each tests..

	@DataProvider(name="ClientSearchData")
	public String[][] getTestData() {
		String[][] testRecords = getData("TestData.xlsx","ClientSearch");
		return testRecords;
	}	

	@BeforeTest
	public void setUp() {
		init();			
	}	
	@Test(dataProvider="ClientSearchData")
	public void verifyClientSearchByClientNumber(String clientnumber) {
        
	//code for search by clientnumber

	}

	@Test(dataProvider="ClientSearchData")	

	public void verifyClientSearchByPolicyNumber(String policynumber) {
        
	//Code for search by policynumber

	}

Answer 1

I think what you are looking is Varargs. You can simply do like below

@DataProvider(name = "testData")
  public static Object[][] testDataProvider() {

      return new Object[][] {new String[]{"a","b","c"}};
  }

 @Test(priority=3,dataProvider = "testData")
  public void test1(String... str1) {
      System.out.println("first string"+" "+str1[0]);

  }

  @Test(priority=4,dataProvider = "testData")
  public  void test2(String... str2) {
      System.out.println("second string"+" " + str2[1]);

  }

The above prints

first string a
second string b

In above code just adjust data provider according to your getTestData Three dots ... is the key here

EDIT:

You can actually do it without Varargs. The below also prints same

 @Test(priority=3,dataProvider = "testData")
  public void test1(String str1[] ) {
      System.out.println("first string"+" "+str1[0]);

  }

  @Test(priority=4,dataProvider = "testData")
  public  void test2(String str2[]) {
      System.out.println("second string"+" " + str2[1]);

  }