Passing a value in a where: block in Spock test - unit-testing

Question

Is it possible to pass a value in where block like this.
I have tried this. But it fails and gives MissingPropertyException.
And I want the name1 and name2 to be inside the method.
def "length of names #name"() {
def name1 = "Spock"
def name2 = "Java"
expect:
name.size() == length
where:
name || length
name1 || 5
name2 || 2
}

Answer 1

Try this:
def "test length of names"() {
expect:
name.size() == length
where:
[name,length]<<getTestData()
}
def getTestData(){
[["Ram" ,3 ] ,["Test" ,4] ]
}
Hope that helps!!!
Thanks

Answer 2

Test data belongs in the where block, not hard coded in the test (feature) method.
One rough way to see this is to think of the test body (excluding the where block) as a method with some number of parameters -- 2 in your case, name and length. And then realize that the where clause just provides data values to the test runner to use when invoking your test method.
Spock uses Groovy magic to transform
def "test length of names"() {
expect:
name.size() == length
where:
name | length
"Spock" | 5
"Java" | 4
}
into something roughly like
def test_length_of_names(name, length) { // note the arguments
assert name.size() == length
}
and then tells the test runner to call the test once for each row in the where clause
test_length_of_names("Spock", 5)
test_length_of_names("Java", 4)
This approach
provides a nice separation of concerns between test logic and test data
allows relatively generic tests to be reused for a wide range of inputs and edge cases
avoids duplication in test code
supports a test design style that deserves the name data-driven testing.
This explanation leaves out a few details, such as creating an instance of the spec for each test, updating the name of each test invocation and calling the various setup and cleanup methods.
See the Spock documentation for more details.