How do you handle data-driven testing and parameterization in cucumber?

1 What is data-driven testing?

Data-driven testing is a way of testing the same functionality with different sets of input data and expected results. This allows you to cover more scenarios, reduce redundancy, and improve maintainability of your test cases. Data-driven testing can also help you to identify edge cases, boundary values, and invalid inputs that might cause errors or bugs in your application.

2 What is parameterization?

Parameterization is a way of passing values from one step to another in your cucumber test scenario. This allows you to reuse the same steps with different arguments, avoid hard-coding values, and make your test steps more readable and understandable. Parameterization can also help you to verify the output of one step as the input of another step, ensuring the consistency and accuracy of your test results.

3 How to use data tables in cucumber?

One of the simplest ways to provide data for your cucumber steps is to use data tables. Data tables are tabular structures that follow the Gherkin syntax and can be written below your steps. You can use data tables to specify multiple rows of input data or expected results for your steps. You can also use data tables to define key-value pairs or lists of values for your steps. To access the data from the data tables, you can use the Table or List objects in your step definitions.

5 How to use external files in cucumber?

A third way to provide data for your cucumber steps is to use external files. External files are files that contain data in various formats, such as CSV, JSON, XML, or YAML. You can use external files to store large amounts of data or data that changes frequently. You can also use external files to share data across multiple features or scenarios. To access the data from the external files, you can use libraries or methods that can read and parse the file format in your step definitions.

6 How to use regular expressions and capture groups in cucumber?

A final way to provide data for your cucumber steps is to use regular expressions and capture groups. Regular expressions are patterns that match specific strings or characters in your step text. Capture groups are parts of the regular expressions that are enclosed in parentheses and can be extracted as parameters for your step definitions. You can use regular expressions and capture groups to define flexible and dynamic steps that can accept various inputs or outputs. To access the data from the capture groups, you can use the arguments or parameters in your step definitions.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?