What is the purpose of the Examples keyword in Cucumber?

Q: What is the purpose of the Examples keyword in Cucumber?

Examples Keyword in Cucumber Purpose Examples keyword is used to supply test data to a Scenario Outline. Every row in the Examples table results in one execution of the scenario with that row's values substituted into the <placeholder tokens. Rules 1. Examples must follow Scenario Outline — it cannot be used with regular Scenario 2. First row is the header (column names = placeholder names) 3. Each subsequent row is one test execution 4. Column names must exactly match the <placeholders in the scenario Syntax gherkin Scenario Outline: Verify product prices Given the user is on the product cata

Answer

Examples Keyword in Cucumber

Purpose

Examples keyword is used to supply test data to a Scenario Outline. Every row in the Examples table results in one execution of the scenario with that row's values substituted into the <placeholder> tokens.

Rules

✓Examples must follow Scenario Outline — it cannot be used with regular Scenario
✓First row is the header (column names = placeholder names)
✓Each subsequent row is one test execution
✓Column names must exactly match the <placeholders> in the scenario

Syntax

Gherkin

Scenario Outline: Verify product prices
  Given the user is on the product catalog page
  When the user searches for "<product>"
  Then the price displayed should be "<price>"
  And the availability should be "<availability>"

  Examples:
    | product  | price  | availability |
    | Laptop   | $999   | In Stock     |
    | Phone    | $599   | In Stock     |
    | Tablet   | $399   | Out of Stock |
    | Watch    | $199   | In Stock     |

This runs 4 tests — one for each data row.

Multiple Examples Blocks

You can have multiple Examples sections with tags:

Gherkin

Scenario Outline: Login test
  When the user logs in as "<username>"
  Then the result should be "<outcome>"

  @smoke
  Examples: Valid Users
    | username | outcome   |
    | admin    | Dashboard |
    | user     | Home      |

  @negative
  Examples: Invalid Users
    | username  | outcome              |
    | hacker    | Access Denied        |
    | unknown   | User not found       |

In Step Definitions

Parameters from Examples are passed as method arguments in the same order they appear in the step:

Java

@When("the user searches for {string}")
public void searchProduct(String product) {
    // Called once per Examples row with that row's value
    searchBox.sendKeys(product);
}

@Then("the price displayed should be {string}")
public void verifyPrice(String expectedPrice) {
    assertEquals(expectedPrice, priceElement.getText());
}