Scenario outlines

The first 2 scenarios in our feature file look almost identical. The only difference is that Sean is in a slightly different location, which affects whether Lucy can hear his shout or not.

We can combine these 2 scenarios using a single scenario outline.

HearShout.feature

# ...

Scenario Outline: only hear in-range shouts
  Given Lucy is at 0, 0
  And Sean is at <Seans-location>
  When Sean shouts
  Then Lucy should hear <what-Lucy-hears>

  Examples: some simple examples
    | Seans-location | what-Lucy-hears |
    | 0, 900         | Sean            |
    | 800, 800       | nothing         |

The lines that follow the Examples keyword are a Gherkin table. Each column is separated by a pipe character | and each new line is a separate row. The first row of the table contains column headings, which match text in the scenario outline.

Now replace the first 2 scenarios in HearShout.feature with the single scenario outline above and run SpecFlow again. You may find that you only need to edit the feature file - your existing step definitions probably won’t need changes.

discuss

• How many scenarios does SpecFlow now report as passing?
• A scenario outline can be followed by multiple Examples tables each with their own name. Why might you want to do this?