Question

I am trying to pass the parameters from a .feature file (cucumber) to a method call in a .rb file
heres what i have:
feature file

 When I set something to blah

step definition for the above feature file:

 When /^I set something to (.+)$/ do |value|
 methodcall(["#{value}"]))
 end

method in a separate .rb file

    def methodcall (a=[],b=[],c=[])
    a.each {|x| 
     do something with x
     }
        b.each {|y| 
     do something with y
     }
        c.each {|z| 
     do something with z
     }
     ...
    end

It works fine when I give only one parameter in .feature file . I am hoping that it’ll work for one value for each of the array (not tried this though)

but what I want to do is write in feature file something like this

       And I set something to "blah,blah1,blah2" and somethingelse to "blah4,blah5" and otherthings to "blah6, blah7"

for the above, step definition would look like

          When /^I set something to (.+) and somethingelse to (.+) and            
          and otherthings to (.+)$/ do |value, value1, value2|
          methodcall(["#{value}"], ["#{value1}"], ["#{value2}"]))
          end

and through the above step definition, have the values in value, value1, value2 to be passed in arguments corresponding to a=[], b=[], c=[] and call the methodcall() method. can someone please help.. Thanks.

Answer 1

In your code

methodcall(["#{value}"])

You are taking the string value and turning it into the first element of an array, which is then passed to the methodcall().

I believe what you actually want to do is

methodcall(value.split(','))

This will take your value, break it up by commas and puts each of those as an element of the array.

To illustrate with your example, given that methodcall() is:

def methodcall (a=[],b=[],c=[])
    a.each {|x| puts x }
    b.each {|y| puts y }
    c.each {|z| puts z }
end

Then

value = "blah,blah1,blah2"
methodcall(["#{value}"])
#=> blah,blah1,blah2

Where as

value = "blah,blah1,blah2"
methodcall(value.split(,))
#=> blah
#=> blah1
#=> blah2