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Everyone knows that testing is a process that generates and consumes large amounts of data. The data used in the test describes the initial conditions of the test and represents the media through which the tester affects the software. It is a key part of most functional tests. But what is the actual test data? Why use it? You may want to know, 'designing test cases is challenging enough, then why bother as much as test data?' the purpose of this tutorial is to introduce you to test data, its importance, and to provide practical tips and tricks for quickly generating test data. So, let's get started!

What is test data? Why is it so important?

The test data is actually input to the software program. It represents data that is affected or affected by the execution of a particular module. Some data can be used for positive testing, usually to verify that a given input set of a given function produces the expected results. Other data can be used to negate tests to test the program's ability to handle exceptions, extremes, exceptions, or unexpected inputs. Poorly designed test data may fail to test all test scenarios that may hinder the quality of the software.

What is test data generation? Why should test data be created before test execution?

Depending on your test environment, you may need to create test data (most of the time) or at least determine the appropriate test data for your test cases (whether the test data has been created).

Typically, test data is created synchronously with the test cases it is intended to use.

Test data can be generated-

Manual

A large number of copies of data from production to the test environment

Bulk copy test data from older client systems

Automatic test data generation tool

In general, sample data should be generated before starting test execution because it is difficult to perform test data management. Because creating test data in many test environments requires many pre-steps or test environment configuration, this is very time-consuming. In addition, if the test data is generated and you are in the test execution phase, you may exceed your test deadline.

Here are several test types and some suggestions about their test data requirements.

Test data for white-box testing

In white-box testing, the test data is derived from a direct inspection of the test code. You can select test data by considering the following factors:

You want to cover as many branches as possible; you can generate test data so that all branches in the program source code are tested at least once

Path testing: all paths in the program source code are tested at least once-the test data can be designed to cover as many situations as possible

Negative Api test:

O Test data may contain invalid parameter types for calling different methods.

O Test data may contain invalid combinations of parameters used to call program methods.

Test data for performance testing

Performance testing is a type of test used to determine the response speed of the system under a particular workload. The goal of such tests is not to find errors, but to eliminate bottlenecks. An important aspect of performance testing is that the sample dataset used must be very close to the "real" or "real-time" data used in production. The following questions arise: "well, it's good to test with real data, but how do I get that data?" The answer is very simple: from knowing the best people-customers. They may be able to provide some of the data they already have, or, if they don't have an existing dataset, they can help you by providing feedback on what the real-world data looks like. In case you are maintaining a test project, you can copy the data from the production environment to the test bench. When making copies, anonymous (encrypted) sensitive customer data (such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank details, etc.) is a good practice.

Test data for security testing

Security testing is the process of determining whether the information system protects data from malice. Datasets that need to be designed to fully test software security must contain the following topics:

Confidentiality: all information provided by customers is strictly confidential and will not be shared with any outsiders. For a short example, if your application uses SSL, you can design a set of test data to verify that the encryption is done correctly.

Integrity: determine whether the information provided by the system is correct. To design appropriate test data, you can start with an in-depth understanding of the design, code, database, and file structure.

Authentication: represents the process of establishing a user's identity. Test data can be designed as different combinations of user names and passwords to check that only authorized personnel can access the software system.

Authorization: inform a specific user of the permissions. The test data may contain different combinations of users, roles, and actions to check only whether users with sufficient permissions can perform specific actions.

Test data of black box test

In a black box test, the tester cannot see the code. Your functional test cases can make the test data meet the following conditions-

No data: check the system response when no data is submitted

Valid data: check the system response when submitting valid test data

Invalid data: check the system response when submitting InValid test data

Illegal data format: check the system response when the test data format is invalid

Boundary condition dataset: test data satisfying boundary value conditions

Equivalent partition dataset: validates the test data of the equivalent partition.

Decision table dataset: test data that validates the decision table test strategy

State transition test data set: test data that meets your state transition test strategy

Use case test data: the test data is synchronized with your use case.

Note: depending on the software application to be tested, you can use some or all of the above test data

Automatic test data generation

To generate various datasets, you can use various automated test data generation tools. Here are some examples of such tools:

GSApps's test data generator can be used to create smart data in almost any database or text file. It enables users to:

Complete application testing by extending the database with meaningful data

Create industry-specific data that can be used for presentation

Protect data privacy by creating clones of existing data and shielding secret values

Speed up the development cycle by simplifying testing and prototyping

DTM's test data generator is a fully customizable utility that generates data, tables (views, procedures, etc.) for database tests (performance tests, QA tests, load tests, or usability tests).

Datatect is Banner Software's SQL data generator, which can generate a variety of actual test data in ASCII flat files, or directly generate test data for RDBMS, including Oracle,Sybase,SQL Server and Informi.

In short, well-designed test data can help you identify and correct serious functional defects. The selection of selected test data must be re-evaluated at each stage of the multi-phase product development cycle. So keep an eye on it all the time.

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