Your Then steps should make assertions comparing expected results to actual results from your application.

Cucumber does not come with an assertion library. Instead, use the assertion methods from a unit testing tool.

Java

JUnit 5

When using the cucumber-junit-platform-engine you are free to use any assertion library of your choice. For example:

JUnit 4

When using JUnit 4 to run Cucumber we recommend using JUnit 4’s assert* methods.

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>junit</groupId>
    <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
    <version>5.11.3</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
    <artifactId>cucumber-junit</artifactId>
    <version>7.20.1</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

Cucumber version

Make sure to use the same version for cucumber-junit that you are using for cucumber-java or cucumber-java8.

Below is an example using assertEquals:

import static org.junit.Assert.*;

public class Example {

    @Then("the result should be {int}")
    public void the_result_should_be(int expectedResult) {
        assertEquals(expectedResult, result);
    }
}

For more examples of how to use JUnit assertions, see the JUnit Wiki.

TestNG

You can also use TestNG’s assertions’.

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
    <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
    <version>7.10.2</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
    <artifactId>cucumber-testng</artifactId>
    <version>7.20.1</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

TestNG assertions are similar JUnit. For a more extensive example of how to use TestNG with Cucumber, see the calculator-java-testng example.

For more information on how to use TestNG assertions, see the TestNG documentation.

JavaScript

Node.js

We recommend using Node.js’ built-in assert module.

const assert = require('assert')

Then('the result should be {word}', function (expected) {
  // this.actual is typically set in a previous step
  assert.equal(this.actual, expected)
})

Other Assertion Libraries

You can use any other assertion library if you wish. Here is an example using Chai:

const { expect } = require('chai')

Then('the result should be {word}', function (expected) {
  expect(this.actual).to.eql(expected)
})

Ruby

RSpec

We recommend using RSpec for assertions.

Add the rspec-expectations gem to your Gemfile. Cucumber will automatically load RSpec’s matchers and expectation methods to be available in your step definitions. For example:

Given /^a nice new bike$/ do
  expect(bike).to be_shiny
end

If you want to configure RSpec, you’ll need to also add the rspec-core gem to your Gemfile. Then, you can add to your features/support/env.rb configuration, such as:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.expect_with :rspec do |c|
    c.syntax = :expect
  end
end

Realize that tests/assertions/expectations either “pass” or “fail” (raise an error), and that “fail” is not the same as false. Anything besides “fail” is a pass.

When, in RSpec, something.should_be 0 and it is not, then what is returned is an error exception, not a Boolean value. In Cucumber, one writes fail if false and not only false. This is because false might be the expected successful outcome of a test, and thus not an error.

Sometimes however, we wish to test how our application handles an exception and therefore do not want that exception to be handled by Cucumber. For that situation use the @allow-rescue tag.

Test::Unit

If you prefer to use Test::Unit’s assert methods you can mix them into your World.

require 'test/unit/assertions'

World(Test::Unit::Assertions)

Checking Assertions