Using tables in .feature files is good practice for creating readable and maintainable testcases. When you create the step definitions, you’ll frequently find yourself creating code to convert the fields in the Table class to something more useful for your code. Using Specflow.Assist.Dynamic we can have automatic conversion between the Table class and a collection of our own classes. In this post we’ll see how to get this working for a basic example

Install the NuGet package

PM> Install-Package Specflow.Assist.Dynamic
Attempting to resolve dependency 'ImpromptuInterface (≥ 5.6.2)'.
Attempting to resolve dependency 'SpecFlow'.
Installing 'ImpromptuInterface 5.6.2'.
Successfully installed 'ImpromptuInterface 5.6.2'.
Installing 'SpecFlow.Assist.Dynamic 1.0.2'.
Successfully installed 'SpecFlow.Assist.Dynamic 1.0.2'.
Adding 'ImpromptuInterface 5.6.2' to TableConversion.
Successfully added 'ImpromptuInterface 5.6.2' to TableConversion.
Adding 'SpecFlow.Assist.Dynamic 1.0.2' to TableConversion.
Successfully added 'SpecFlow.Assist.Dynamic 1.0.2' to TableConversion.

This has updated our App.config with the following:

<specFlow>
    <!-- For additional details on SpecFlow configuration options see http://go.specflow.org/doc-config -->
  <stepAssemblies>
      <!-- This attribute is required in order to use StepArgument Transformation as described here; 
    https://github.com/marcusoftnet/SpecFlow.Assist.Dynamic/wiki/Step-argument-transformations  -->
      <stepAssembly assembly="SpecFlow.Assist.Dynamic" />
    </stepAssemblies>
  </specFlow>

Create a .feature file with a table in it

Create the following .feature file:

Feature: TableConversion
	In order to avoid lots of code, I want my Tables in the feature file 
	to be automatically converted to an object I can use in the code of my 
	step definitions.

Scenario: TableConversionExample
	Given the following table:
	| id | sometext        | somebool |
	| 1  | Hello World     | True     |
	| 2  | and again hello | False    |
	Then my binding should have the following objects:
	| id | sometext           | somebool |
	| 1  | Hello World        | True     |
	| 2  | and again hello    | False    |

Create the following binding

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using TechTalk.SpecFlow;
using TechTalk.SpecFlow.Assist;

namespace TableConversion
{
    class MyPocoClass
    {
        public int    id       { get; set; }
        public string sometext { get; set; }
        public bool?  somebool { get; set; }
    }

    [Binding]
    public class TableConversionSteps
    {
        private Dictionary<int, MyPocoClass> MyObjects;

        public TableConversionSteps()
        {
            this.MyObjects = new Dictionary<int, MyPocoClass>();

        }

        [Given(@"the following table:")]
        public void GivenTheFollowingTable(Table table)
        {
            var rows = table.CreateSet<MyPocoClass>();
            //Store each row/object in a dictionary using its id as key
            foreach (MyPocoClass poco in rows)
            {
                this.MyObjects.Add(poco.id, poco);
            }
        }

        [Then(@"my binding should have the following objects:")]
        public void ThenMyBindingShouldHaveTheFollowingObjects(Table table)
        {
            var ExpectedObjects = table.CreateSet<MyPocoClass>();

            //Check that each object that should be present, really is present
            foreach (MyPocoClass ExpectedObject in ExpectedObjects)
            {
                MyPocoClass ActualObject = this.MyObjects[ExpectedObject.id];
                if(false == ActualObject.sometext.Equals(ExpectedObject.sometext))
                {
                    Assert.Fail(String.Format(
                        "Expected sometext '{0}', actual text was {1}",
                        ExpectedObject.sometext,
                        ActualObject.sometext));
                }
                
                if(ActualObject.somebool != ExpectedObject.somebool)
                {
                    Assert.Fail(String.Format(
                        "Expected somebool '{0}', actual somebool was {1}",
                        ExpectedObject.somebool,
                        ActualObject.somebool));
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Run the unit test

When you run this test, you’ll see that it passes. Somethings to remember:

• The framework maps the name of the fields in the table header to a property in your poco class. If it cant find that property, no errors will be raised


• Conversion of text in the .feature file to a C# property strips/trims white-space before and after the text in the .feature file. White-space in the middle will remain and be included in your C# property


• The framework uses the .Net methods to parse the fields. Be careful, the text “1” will not result in a True value in your boolean fields in the poco class