Bug report: An alternation can not be used inside an optional.

[nklowns]

👓 What did you see?

[Info  - 19:03:16] Reindexing file://c:\develop\HIDDEN
[Info  - 19:03:16] * Found 63 feature file(s) in ["tests/e2e/specs/**/*.feature"]
[Info  - 19:03:16] * Found 1135 steps in those feature files
[Info  - 19:03:18] * Found 62 glue file(s) in ["tests/e2e/specs/**/*.js"]
[Info  - 19:03:18] * Found 0 parameter types in those glue files
[Info  - 19:03:18] * Found 463 step definitions in those glue files
[Error - 19:03:18] * Step Definition errors: Error: This Cucumber Expression has a problem at column 21:

entro no detalhe d(a/o) {string}
                    ^
An alternation can not be used inside an optional.
You can use '\/' to escape the the '/'
    at mT (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:67:79659)
    at e0 (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:1105)
    at Gk (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2717)
    at bT (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2874)
    at c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2484
    at Gk (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2717)
    at bT (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2874)
    at Bk (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2005)
    at Gk (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2717)
    at bT (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2874)
    at c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2484
    at ic.parse (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:2376)
    at new Mi (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:5199)
    at ma.createExpression (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:84:11734)
    at c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:448:748
    at Lf.eachStepDefinitionExpression (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:445:1237)
    at Af.build (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:448:695)
    at bc.<anonymous> (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:454:18598)
    at Generator.next (<anonymous>)
    at u (c:\Users\cloud\.vscode\extensions\cucumberopen.cucumber-official-1.7.0\out\extension.js:454:11308)
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)

✅ What did you expect to see?

📦 Which tool/library version are you using?

Cucumber plugin: v1.7.0
VS code: 1.74.3

🔬 How could we reproduce it?

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install Cucumber extension v1.7 onto latest VS Code
2. Create any feature file
3. Have two Scenario:

# language: pt

Funcionalidade: XYZ

    Cenário: Editar XYZ
        Quando entro no detalhe da "XYZ"

    Cenário: Editar ZYX
        Quando entro no detalhe do "ZYX"

4. Create any spec file
5. Have one step definition:

import { When } from 'cypress-cucumber-preprocessor/steps'
const { wait } = cy

When('entro no detalhe d(a/o) {string}', () => {
  wait('@apisRequests')
})

📚 Any additional context?

---

This text was originally generated from a template, then edited by hand. You can modify the template here.

[kieran-ryan]

@nklowns, modifying your step definition from d(a/o) to d/da/do, d(a)/do or d(a)/d(o) will resolve the issue and match your steps as expected - see alternative text use in cucumber expressions.

import { When } from 'cypress-cucumber-preprocessor/steps'
const { wait } = cy

When('entro no detalhe da/do {string}', () => {
  wait('@apisRequests')
})

[kieran-ryan]

Thank you very much for raising @nklowns. This is expected behaviour of Cucumber Expressions; however arising from this issue, I have raised a pull request to improve the error message. If you have any feedback on it, please let us know. You can also raise a feature request to that repository if you would like support to be added for using alternations inside optionals.

An alternation can not be used inside an optional
If you did not mean to use an alternation you can use '\\/' to escape the '/'. Otherwise rephrase your expression or consider using a regular expression instead.

@nklowns, modifying your step definition from d(a/o) to d/da/do, d(a)/do or d(a)/d(o) will resolve the issue and match your steps as expected

If changing to the above doesn't meet your use case and you had a different intention, please advise and will see if an appropriate solution can be provided.