Cucumber | Data Table | Access & Usage

Assumption here — we have good understanding of following tool / terminologies.

• Cucumber tool (Basic Idea)
• BDD (Behavior Driven Development)
• Gherkin Syntax / Feature File

What is Data table in Cucumber?

Data Tables are handy for passing a list of values to a step definition. Cucumber provides a rich API for manipulating tables from within step definitions.

• Data Tables are also used to handle large amount of data. Tables in Cucumber feature files are represented by using the pipeline “|” sign.
• We can use data table under scenario OR scenario Outline.

Here is the example scenario with different forms of table:

----------------------EXAMPLE-----------------------------
@tag @wip
Feature: Learn data table
Scenario: Cucumber Data Table
    Given Table with two rows and multiple columns
      | columnA | columnB | columnC | columnD |
      | value1  | value2  | value3  | value4  |
      | value5  | value6  | value7  | value8  |
    And Table with only two rows and two columns
      | username | admin    |
      | password | admin123 |
    And Table with multiple rows and one column
      | columnNameG |
      | row1        |
      | row2        |
      | row3        |
----------------------EXAMPLE-----------------------------
@tag @wip
Feature: Learn data table
Scenario outline: Cucumber Data Table
    Given Table with example
      | FirstName  | <FirstName>  |
      | MiddleName | <MiddleName> |
      | LastName   | <LastName>   |
Examples: 
      | FirstName | MiddleName | LastName |
      | Priyank   | B          | Shah     |
      | Mansi     | P          | Shah     |

What about tables in steps?

When Cucumber tool is parsing the feature file, it converts all tables in special data type — DataTable. As it can be seen below — input parameter for the step definitions is DataTable.

@Given("Table with two rows and multiple columns")
public void table_with_two_rows_and_multiple_columns(DataTable dataTable) {
    
}
@Then("Table with only two rows and two columns")
public void table_with_only_two_rows_and_two_columns(DataTable dataTable) {
    
}
@Then("Table with multiple rows and one column")
public void table_with_multiple_rows_and_one_column(DataTable dataTable) {
    
}
@Then("Table with example")
public void table_with_example(DataTable dataTable) {
    
}

Possible ways to convert DataTable

Take a closer look at possible ways to convert DataTable into more useful data types: Lists or Maps.

— — — — — — — — — asMaps(): — — — — — — — — -

• converts table into list of maps, where columns (from the first row) are mapped to values in each row

For example the following table:

Then Table with two rows and multiple columns
      | columnA | columnB | columnC | columnD |
      | value1  | value2  | value3  | value4  |
      | value5  | value6  | value7  | value8  |

will be converted to:

[[columnA:value1, columnB:value2, columnC:value3, columnD:value4], [columnA:value5, columnB:value6, columnC:value7, columnD:value8]]

For reference, sudo code: (katalon, groovy)

@Then("Table with two rows and multiple columns")
public void table_with_two_rows_and_multiple_columns(DataTable dataTable) {
println "using Maps ------------------------"
  List<Map<String,String>> data = dataTable.asMaps(String.class, String.class)
  println data
  for (row in data)
  {
   println row.get('columnA')
   println row.get('columnB')
   println row.get('columnC')
   println row.get('columnD')
}    
}

or another example table:

| columnNameG |
| row1        |
| row2        |
| row3        |

will be converted to:

[[columnNameG:row1], [columnNameG:row2], [columnNameG:row3]]

— — — — — — — — — — asLists(): — — — — — — — — -

• converts table to a simple list of lists (rows with values)

For example the following table:

Then Table with two rows and multiple columns
      | columnA | columnB | columnC | columnD |
      | value1  | value2  | value3  | value4  |
      | value5  | value6  | value7  | value8  |

will be converted to:

[[columnA, columnB, columnC, columnD], [value1, value2, value3, value4], [value5, value6, value7, value8]]

For reference, sudo code: (katalon, groovy)

@Then("Table with two rows and multiple columns")
public void table_with_two_rows_and_multiple_columns(DataTable dataTable) {
println "using Lists ------------------------"
  List<List<String>> dataLs = dataTable.asLists(String.class)
  println dataLs
  for (int i ; i < dataLs.size() ; i++)
  {
   for (int j=0 ; j < dataLs.get(i).size() ; j++)
   {
    println dataLs.get(i).get(j)
   }
  }    
}

or another example table:

| columnNameG |
| row1        |
| row2        |
| row3        |

will be converted to:

[[columnNameG], [row1], [row2], [row3]]

— — — — — — — — — asList(): — — — — — — — — — —

• converts all table elements into a list

For example the following table:

Then Table with two rows and multiple columns
      | columnA | columnB | columnC | columnD |
      | value1  | value2  | value3  | value4  |
      | value5  | value6  | value7  | value8  |

will be converted to:

[columnA, columnB, columnC, columnD, value1, value2, value3, value4, value5, value6, value7, value8]

For reference, sudo code: (katalon, groovy)

@Then("Table with two rows and multiple columns")
public void table_with_two_rows_and_multiple_columns(DataTable dataTable) {
println "using List ------------------------"
  List<String> dataL = dataTable.asList(String.class)
  println dataL
  for (int i ; i<dataL.size(); i++)
  {
   println dataL.get(i)
  }
 }
}

or another example table:

| columnNameG |
| row1        |
| row2        |
| row3        |

will be converted to:

[columnNameG, row1, row2, row3]

— — — — — — — — — — asMap(): — — — — — — — — — -

• works only two column tables and converts data table to map.

For example the following table:

And Table with only two rows and two columns
      | username | admin    |
      | password | admin123 |

will be converted to:

[username:admin, password:admin123]

For reference, sudo code: (katalon, groovy)

@Then("Table with multiple rows and one column")
public void table_with_multiple_rows_and_one_column(DataTable dataTable) {
println "using Map-------------"
  Map<String, String> cred  = dataTable.asMap(String.class, String.class)
  println cred
  println 'username: ' + cred.get('username')
  println 'Password: ' + cred.get('password')
  
  println "using Map Iteration (Get all keys) -------------"
  cred.keySet().forEach{key -> println key}
  
  println "using Map Iteration (Get all keys and values) ---------"
  cred.forEach{key,value ->
  println "key:  "+ key
  println "value:  " + value   
 }
}

Scenario Outline example the following table:

Scenario: Cucumber Data Table
    And Table with example
      | FirstName  | <FirstName>  |
      | MiddleName | <MiddleName> |
      | LastName   | <LastName>   |
Examples: 
      | FirstName | MiddleName | LastName |
      | Priyank   | B          | Shah     |
      | Mansi     | P          | Shah     |

For reference, sudo code: (katalon)

@Then("Table with multiple rows and one column")
public void table_with_multiple_rows_and_one_column(DataTable dataTable) {
println "using Map Object------------"
  Map<String,String> dataM = dataTable.asMap(String.class, String.class)
  println dataM
  println dataM.get('FirstName')
  println dataM.get('MiddleName')
  println dataM.get('LastName')
 }
}

— — — — — — —My Experience with Data table: — —

As it can be seen — tables in cucumber can be represented in the various ways. It’s up to the user of the Cucumber to choose which way is best. From my practice I can recommend to use tables as maps/map — as it more flexible solution.

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