Step containing regex capture group not found

[ckorakidis]

👓 What did you see?

step: And a message is sent with a mobile
glue: Then("a message is sent (with|without) a mobile") { withOrWithout: String =>
error message: io.cucumber.junit.UndefinedStepException: The step 'a message is sent with a mobile' is undefined.

✅ What did you expect to see?

Step should be picked and "with" or "without" should be the captured value

📦 Which tool/library version are you using?

Cucumber Scala 8.9.0
Cucumber core 7.7.0

🔬 How could we reproduce it?

Scenario: Regex capture
    Given wte
    And a message is sent with a mobile

and

Then("a message is sent (with|without) a mobile") { withOrWithout: String =>
  assert(withOrWithout == "with"
}

the error:

2022-09-12 09:56:22.644  [error] Test SomeFeature - SomeFeature failed: io.cucumber.junit.UndefinedStepException: The step 'a message is sent with a mobile' is undefined.
2022-09-12 09:56:22.644  [error] You can implement this step using the snippet(s) below:
2022-09-12 09:56:22.644  [error] 
2022-09-12 09:56:22.644  [error] Then("""a message is sent with a mobile""") { () =>
2022-09-12 09:56:22.644  [error]   // Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
2022-09-12 09:56:22.644  [error]   throw new io.cucumber.scala.PendingException()
2022-09-12 09:56:22.644  [error] }
2022-09-12 09:56:22.644  [error] , took 8.307 sec

[ckorakidis]

Looks like I missed start and end in the glue, the following works:

Then("^a message is sent (with|without) a mobile$") { withOrWithout: String =>
  assert(withOrWithout == "with"
}

[gaeljw]

Indeed, in Cucumber terminology, without start and end, the string is interpreted as a "Cucumber Expression" whereas with it it's interpreted as a regular regex.

Cucumber Expression can still be used for your use case but by defining a custom type like (not tested, there might be typos):

ParameterType("withOrWithout", "(with|without)") { (str) =>
  str
}

Then("a message is sent {withOrWithout} a mobile") { withOrWithout: String =>
}

See https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-expressions#readme

[ckorakidis]

Good to know, thanks @gaeljw !