Test Automation: Use of Data Table in Cucumber-JVM

Using data table could be very helpful when you write spec in Gherkin. Consider the following example.

You have a registration form with first name, last name, email address and password fields. The spec can look like the followings:

a.       Without Data table

b.      With Data table

There are two benefits of using data table here.

1.     It gives better readability and maintainability.

2.     If you do not use data table, you will have to write individual step definitions for every inputs. Whereas, if you use data table you can get the work done using a single step definition as shown below

Another representation of data table is horizontal layout. Suppose you have a user login page. And you want to test successful login function. So the spec will look like following

Unlike previous example, here data table represents a horizontal layout. Left column represents the items and right column represents corresponding data. Step definition of the above will look something like the following:

Practice this and hopefully you will find this handy. Thanks.