A rule such as “credit recent flights” sounds clear until the team asks what counts as recent and which flights qualify. A table puts candidate flights in rows and the facts that affect eligibility in columns. Eligible and ineligible rows make exceptions visible: a flight may be too old, belong to another airline, be cancelled, or not yet have taken place. A note can preserve a boundary rule, such as when the 90-day period starts. section 6.3
Compare the rows to see how date, flight number, and status each change the eligibility decision. section 6.3
In an executable scenario, a data table keeps related values beside the step that needs them instead of repeating account details across many sentences. Rows can represent several records; two columns can describe the fields of one record; a single column can hold a list. Column headers help readers interpret the values. Tables following Given or Then steps can state starting conditions or expected results, while tables of examples can supply variations of a scenario. section 7.3 section 7.3.1
Scenario: Transfer points between family members
Given Danielle and Martin are family members
And they have the following accounts:
| owner | points | status points | #1
| Danielle | 100000 | 800 | #1
| Martin | 50000 | 50 | #1
When Martin transfers 40000 points to Danielle
| owner | points | status points | #2
| Danielle | 140000 | 800 | #2
| Martin | 10000 | 50 | #2
The account rows show how one compact structure replaces repeated point balances in a transfer scenario. section 7.3.1
For automation, each row can become a domain object passed to a step definition. Cucumber can expose the raw DataTable for manual extraction, but a DataTableType conversion moves that mapping out of the step definition. Keep the table focused on business-relevant fields so the scenario remains useful as living documentation. section 8.4.5 section 7.3
Scenario: Completed flights in the past 90 days can be claimed
Given Todd joined the Frequent Flyer program on 2020-01-01
When Todd asks for the following flight to be credited to his account:
| Flight Number | Date | Status |
| FH-101 | 2019-12-01 | COMPLETED |
| FH-102 | 2019-12-01 | CANCELED |
| FH-103 | 2019-08-01 | COMPLETED |
Then only the following flights should be credited:
| Flight Number | Date | Status |
| FH-101 | 2019-12-01 | COMPLETED |
The requested-flight and credited-flight tables distinguish input records from the expected outcome. section 8.4.5
