Inconsistent treatment of strings in different object types

[plocket]

👓 What did you see?

Summary: A multiline string (with \n) in a data table seems to have actual new lines while the same multiline string gets stringified when it is in Step text and just has the literal text \n. I would find the first behavior more useful. The second behavior doesn't work for my purposes. I'd like to be able to use both kinds of formats. I have replicated this in a sandbox with console logs.

Code in steps.js

const { When } = require("@cucumber/cucumber");

When("someone writes", function (dataTable) {
  console.log(dataTable.raw()[0][1]);
});

When("someone says {string}", function (phrase) {
  console.log(phrase);
});

Code in greeting.feature

Feature: Strings

	Scenario: Compare string behavior
		Then someone writes
		    | data | line1\nline2 |
		When someone says "line1\nline2"

The someone writes step console logs this:

line1
line2

The someone says step console logs this:

line1\nline2

I'm using cucumberjs to test filling out forms. When I fill in textarea elements, a data table lets me enter new lines correctly. When I use a regular step, the text area doesn't show multiple lines but instead the literal text line1\nline2 (which includes the \ and the n). I have not yet been able to find a way to change the literal \n into an actual new line in a textarea. Changing my puppeteer code might do it, but my tests need to type the text in letter by letter instead of just setting the value of the textarea node.

✅ What did you expect to see?

I would like to get an actual new line in both cases so that the textarea field gets the right value:

line1
line2

📦 Which tool/library version are you using?

node v18.17.0
@cucumber/cucumber v9.3.0

🔬 How could we reproduce it?

Here is the codesandbox replication of the behavior.

Code in steps.js

const { When } = require("@cucumber/cucumber");

When("someone writes", function (dataTable) {
  console.log(dataTable.raw()[0][1]);
});

When("someone says {string}", function (phrase) {
  console.log(phrase);
});

Code in greeting.feature

Feature: Strings

	Scenario: Compare string behavior
		Then someone writes
		    | data | line1\nline2 |
		When someone says "line1\nline2"

Run the tests.

📚 Any additional context?

Thanks for the work you folks do here. This has been an amazing tool for me. I wish I could do more to support the project.

[davidjgoss]

@plocket thanks for the detailed report and repro.

I think this is expected behaviour but will share with other maintainers who are a bit closer to the parser implementations to be sure.

For multiline strings I'd always reach for a doc string. It can make the feature file a bit verbose if you sometimes/mostly have single-line strings, but in that case I'd recommend having two versions of the step (eg. When('someone says {string}', (text) => {...}) and When('someone says:', (text) => {...}), ) so you can be concise where possible.

Hope this helps.

[plocket]

Thanks for the attention. A doc string is our backup plan in case other solutions aren't possible. My plan for a doc string step has been When(/someone says$/, (text) => {...}) to make them look the same as each other. If not that, I'd want it to look significantly different - I'd find it hard to remember a difference like a colon. I'm not sure which of those would cause less confusion, but I guess we'll see how it goes.