Angle brackets are not parsed properly in scenario outline

ikbendruk commented 4 years ago

SpecFlow Version:

[ ] 3.1
[ ] 3.0
[ ] 2.4
[x] 2.3
[ ] 2.2
[ ] 2.1
[ ] 2.0
[ ] 1.9

Used Test Runner

[ ] SpecFlow+Runner
[ ] MSTest
[x] NUnit
[ ] Xunit

Version number: 3.8.1.0

Project Format of the SpecFlow project

[x] Classic project format using packages.config
[ ] Classic project format using <PackageReference> tags
[ ] Sdk-style project format

.feature.cs files are generated using

[x] SpecFlow.Tools.MsBuild.Generation NuGet package
[ ] SpecFlowSingleFileGenerator custom tool

Visual Studio Version

[ ] VS 2019
[ ] VS 2017
[x] VS 2015

`Enable SpecFlowSingleFileGenerator Custom Tool` option in Visual Studio extension settings

[x] Enabled
[ ] Disabled

Are the latest Visual Studio updates installed?

[x] Yes
[ ] No, I use Visual Studio version <Major>.<Minor>.<Patch>

.NET Framework:

[x] >= .NET 4.5
[ ] before .NET 4.5
[ ] .NET Core 2.0
[ ] .NET Core 2.1
[ ] .NET Core 2.2
[ ] .NET Core 3.0

Test Execution Method:

[x] Visual Studio Test Explorer
[ ] TFS/VSTS/Azure DevOps – Task – PLEASE SPECIFY THE NAME OF THE TASK
[ ] Command line – PLEASE SPECIFY THE FULL COMMAND LINE

<SpecFlow> Section in app.config or content of specflow.json

  <specFlow>
    <unitTestProvider name="Nunit"/>
    <runtime missingOrPendingStepsOutcome="Error"/>
    <trace listener="UnitTests.SpecFlowTracer, UnitTests"/>
  </specFlow>

Repro Project

Issue Description

When executing the following scenario outline

Scenario Outline: Less than works as expected
    Given 5 <= <x>

    Examples:
    | x |
    | 5 |

with the following step implementation

[Given(@"(.*) \<\= (.*)")]
public void Given(int p0, int p1)
{
    Assert.IsTrue(p0 <= p1);
}

SpecFlow generates the following NUnit code

[NUnit.Framework.TestAttribute()]
[NUnit.Framework.DescriptionAttribute("Less than works as expected")]
[NUnit.Framework.TestCaseAttribute("5", null)]
public virtual void LessThanWorksAsExpected(string x, string[] exampleTags)
{
    TechTalk.SpecFlow.ScenarioInfo scenarioInfo = new TechTalk.SpecFlow.ScenarioInfo("Less than works as expected", exampleTags);
#line 7
this.ScenarioSetup(scenarioInfo);
#line 8
    testRunner.Given("5 <= <x>", ((string)(null)), ((TechTalk.SpecFlow.Table)(null)), "Given ");
#line hidden
    this.ScenarioCleanup();
}

Parameter x is not parsed properly that's why the test fails.

[12:41:06.900] Given 5 <= <x>
[12:41:06.925] error: Input string was not in a correct format

Steps to Reproduce

Run the scenario outline described above.

SabotageAndi commented 4 years ago

Interesting issue. We recommend putting parameters of your steps in single quotes '. This makes it easier for a human and also our logic to recognize what are parameters in the step.

So your step would look like Given '5' <= '<x>'

ikbendruk commented 4 years ago

So your step would look like Given '5' <= '<x>'

Thanks for the tip!

Unfortunately, this does not work very well for me since my steps look more like:

Then parameter <Parameter> value remains equal to or less than <Value> for <Timeout> seconds

The idea was to make these steps shorter and more readable with <=, >=.

I also tried special symbols ≤, ≥. They work perfectly fine with SpecFlow but are not properly displayed in the console output. So this option does not help either.

SpecFlowOSS / SpecFlow