Scenario vs. Scenario Outline

Question

Background:

I'm currently writing behat tests (Mink/Selenium) for a Symfony2 webpage. I have a good deal of examples to go by, and actually writing them should be no problem. The step definitions are already written.

However, in the examples, they some times define a Scenario: and some times a Scenario Outline:

Question:

What is the difference between these two ways of defining a test?

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 09 '21 at 07:42

26

From the official guide:

Copying and pasting scenarios to use different values can quickly become tedious and repetitive:
Scenario: Eat 5 out of 12
  Given there are 12 cucumbers
  When I eat 5 cucumbers
  Then I should have 7 cucumbers

Scenario: Eat 5 out of 20
  Given there are 20 cucumbers
  When I eat 5 cucumbers
  Then I should have 15 cucumbers
Scenario Outlines allow us to more concisely express these examples through the use of a template with placeholders
Scenario Outline: Eating
  Given there are <start> cucumbers
  When I eat <eat> cucumbers
  Then I should have <left> cucumbers

  Examples:
    | start | eat | left |
    |  12   |  5  |  7   |
    |  20   |  5  |  15  |
The Scenario Outline steps provide a template which is never directly run. A Scenario Outline is run once for each row in the Examples section beneath it (except for the first header row).

More in the Writing Features guide.

edited Feb 09 '21 at 07:42

OfftheCode

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answered Jun 26 '15 at 07:52

Jakub Zalas

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Do i have to have the simple `Scenario` when i have `Scenario Outlet`? – Jimmy May 07 '17 at 19:46
@Salman no. `Scenario Outline` is simply a scenario with a set of examples. Whenever you need to use the `Examples` section, you need to use the `Scenario Outline` instead of a `Scenario`. The difference is that a `Scenario` will be executed once while `Scenario Outline` is executed for each example from the table. – Jakub Zalas May 08 '17 at 14:38
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A new link on guide for writing scenarios can be found at: https://docs.behat.org/en/latest/user_guide/writing_scenarios.html – OfftheCode Feb 08 '21 at 23:13

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 26 '15 at 07:50

-1

Scenario is what it is.

Scenario outline uses placeholders for faster testing.

https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber/wiki/Scenario-Outlines

answered Jun 26 '15 at 07:50

Siim Kallari

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What exactly do you mean by "faster testing"? Also, the given link is broken – Nico Haase Feb 09 '21 at 07:44

Scenario vs. Scenario Outline

2 Answers2