Database Testing

Author: Krishna Yannam

Asst. Manager (Quality)
 Database Testing - DB Updates

Database Testing mainly concentrates on following:

 Data Integrity test

 Stored Procedure test

 Type test

 Data Size Test

 Event Driven Item Test

 Input Item Verification

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 Data Integrity Test
Actions: Updating / Deletion / Fresh Insertion/Display of new Screen /Time bound actions.

Once a value undergoes any of the above actions

(update / Delete / Insert) the database should be verified

for the changes performed on related entities i.e.,

Foreign key / Primary key and all dependent entities

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 Store Procedure Test
Actions: Updating / Deletion / Fresh Insertion/Display of new Screen /Time bound actions.

Every Stored Procedure is to be tested separately for its functionality ( Based

on Separate functions it performs ) Stored procedures need to be broken up

into Action Items based on Functions and then Each action item needs to be

tested separately as the results of Complete Stored procedure.

Execution may differ from the results obtained by partial execution. This also

helps in validating the modularity of Code (White Box).

 Store Procedure Test
In the case of stored procedures, to come up with test cases one can consider
the following:

1. The no. of arguments being passed

2. The data type of each of the arguments being passed
3. The order of the arguments being passed
4. The return value
5. The data type of the return value

Based on these you can write both positive and negative test cases, consider a
simple example of a stored procedure taking 2 numbers as input and returning
the sum of the 2 numbers

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 Type Test
Actions: Updating / Deletion / Fresh Insertion/Display of new Screen /Time bound actions.

This test is performed to verify that the data types used by the DBA are same
as expected by agreed upon by the developer. Often the data types chosen by
developers are not the same as suggested by database administrators ,
especially for the fields like
A) Phone (Num./Text)
B) Description (Large Text)
These kinds of mismatches often do not effect the functionality and normal
execution of code, but prove to be very Costly during Updating of product or
during addition of features to the existing modules

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 Data Size Test
Actions: Updating / Deletion / Fresh Insertion/Display of new Screen /Time bound actions.

Performance of Data size testing is often done only at the front end during the

unit testing , but it is essential to perform it at back end separately .

This ensures smooth transition while appending functionality and integrating

modules as during these Phases , the data is passed to the system with direct

user interaction and bypassing front end validation.

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 Environment Driven Item Test
Actions: Updating / Deletion / Fresh Insertion/Display of new Screen /Time bound actions.

Event Driven Actions (Triggers or Scheduled Actions) needs to be tested on

two parameters.

A) Events that trigger these actions: Here QA needs to check the events on

which any of the trigger can get fired/executed . This testing can be done

with the help of DBA also .

B) Actions performed by the above stated events. Here the contents of such

stored procedures or scheduled actions are verified for the functionality .

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 Input Item Verification
Actions: Updating / Deletion / Fresh Insertion/Display of new Screen /Time bound actions.

This is the process of verification of the input items (Though this is not totally
a part of database testing , but this has to be performed essentially during
database testing of the Web based applications.

Often it is seen that the input items (Text Box / RTB / Combination Box /
Active-X controls) are tested for validation only at front end (Screen testing)
but these are again to be tested with junk Character values to confirm that
they do not push in such characters which the databases Often
misrepresent or Replace with other characters (this testing can partially be
performed during Unit testing also by the developer.

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Thank Q..

Author : Krishna Yannam

Asst. Manager (Quality)

yannams@gmail.com