testng - passing list as parmeters in testng.xml

Question

Would it be possible to pass a list in the testNG parameters. Below is sample code

Example: Trying to pass list of numbers in XML. Not sure if TestNG does not support this feature. Or am i missing anything?

 <suite name="Suite" parallel="none">  
     <test name="Test" preserve-order="false">  
         <parameter name="A" value="1"/>   
         <parameter name="B" value="2"/>   
         <parameter name="C" value="3"/>   
         <parameter name="D" value="{4,5}"/>   
         <classes>  
             <class name="TestNGXMLData"/>  
         </classes>  
     </test>  
 </suite>  

---

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import com.thoughtworks.selenium.Selenium;
import static org.testng.Assert.assertTrue;
import org.testng.annotations.*;
import com.thoughtworks.selenium.*;

public class TestNGXMLData {

    @Test
    @Parameters(value = { "A", "B", "C", "D" })
    public void xmlDataTest(String A, String B, String C, ArrayList<String> ls) {

        System.out.println("Passing Three parameter to Test " + A + " and " + B + " and " + C);

        Iterator it = ls.iterator();
        while (it.hasNext()) {
            String value = (String) it.next();
        }
    }
}

Thanks, Siva

Answer 1

You can only pass basic types like this, so you should declare your last parameter as a "String" and then convert "{3, 4}" to a List. I suggest using "3 4" instead and simply parse it with String#split.

If you want to pass more complex parameters and you don't want to bother with converting, switch to using a @DataProvider.