Array placeholder in Gherkin syntax - cucumber

Question

Hi I am trying to write express a set of requirements in gherkin syntax, but it requires a good deal of repetition. I saw here that I can use placeholders which would be perfect for my task, however some of the data in my Given and in my then are collections. How would I go about representing collections in the examples?
Given a collection of spaces <spaces>
And a <request> to allocate space
When I allocate the request
Then I should have <allocated_spaces>
Examples:
| spaces | request | allocated_spaces |
| ? | ? | ? |

Answer 1

A bit hacky, but you can delimit a string:
Given a collection of spaces <spaces>
And a <request> to allocate space
When I allocate the request
Then I should have <allocated_spaces>
Examples:
| spaces | request | allocated_spaces |
| a,b,c | ? | ? |
Given(/^a collection of spaces (.*?)$/) do |arg1|
collection = arg1.split(",") #=> ["a","b","c"]
end

Answer 2

You can use Data Tables. I never try to have param in data table before, but in theory it should work.
Given a collection of spaces:
| space1 |
| space2 |
| <space_param> |
And a <request> to allocate space
When I allocate the request
Then I should have <allocated_spaces>
Examples:
| space_param | request | allocated_spaces |
| ? | ? | ? |
The given data table would be an instance of Cucumber::Ast::Table, checkout the rubydoc for its API.

Answer 3

Here's an example, again using split, but without the regex:
Scenario Outline: To ensure proper allocation
Given a collection of spaces <spaces>
And a <request> to allocate space
When I allocate the request
Then I should have <allocated_spaces>
Examples:
| spaces | request | allocated_spaces |
| "s1, s2, s3" | 2 | 2 |
| "s1, s2, s3" | 3 | 3 |
| "s1, s2" | 3 | 2 |
I use cucumber-js so this is what the code may look like:
Given('a collection of spaces {stringInDoubleQuotes}', function (spaces, callback) {
// Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
this.availableSpaces = spaces.split(", ");
callback();
});
Given('a {int} to allocate space', function (numToAllocate, callback) {
this.numToAllocate = numToAllocate;
// Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
callback();
});
When('I allocate the request', function (callback) {
console.log("availableSpaces:", this.availableSpaces);
console.log("numToAllocate:", this.numToAllocate);
// Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
callback();
});
Then('I should have {int}', function (int, callback) {
// Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
callback(null, 'pending');
});