How Database Testing can Help Improving Quality

The data creation, storage, and retrieval has reached new heights with a growing number of internet users, and hence the number of issues arising from these activities. The key source of origin of these failures/defects lies in insufficient attention to the management and testing of databases.

Before starting with database testing, first, we should know what is a database?

Every person who belongs to the software field must know about the database like what is a database, why it is used.

The database is a systematic collection of data with indexed information, that provides functionality to store, view and manipulate data using a structured query language like SQL.

The data is stored in the form of the tables and if you understand the concept of tables then you can look at the database and you can see how it is organized and understand how data is stored in different tables and you will be able to test it using the queries.

Now coming to Database Testing here QA checks if the data retrieved by the application is the same in the Database, Data insert/modify in the Database through front-end application/ SQL queries And database testing confirmed that the data which is inserted/retrieved is the correct or not. To start database testing testers should have a thorough knowledge of database concepts and SQL queries.

Database Validation Types:

Data Mapping:- It is a part of database testing, It focuses on validating the transferring data to backend forth to the backend database. Here we will check whether the fields in the front end forms are mapped properly with the corresponding field with the database table.
ACID property:- Automaticity Consistency Isolation Durability
Automaticity: It means that a transaction either fails or passes.
Consistency: It shows that the database state will remain valid after the transaction gets completed.
Isolation: Multiple transactions will run without impacting each other.
Durability: Once a transaction is done No external factor like power loss, a crash can change it.
Data Integrity:- This means that any of the Create, Retrieve, update, delete operations, the updated and most recent values should appear on all the screens.
Business rules Conformance:- The complexity of databases means more complicated components like relational constraints, triggers, stored procedures, etc. So testers will have come up with appropriate SQL queries in order to test the complex data.
How to test database:
Testers should have a basic level of understanding of database concepts like SQL commands.
DDL(Data Definition Language): It uses create, alter, rename, drop, truncate to handle the tables
DML(Data manipulation language): It includes the Add update and delete the records.
DCL(Data Control Language): Only two statements are used here: Grant and Revoke.

Syntax of Revoke:

Revoke select/update

on

from;

Syntax of Grant:

Grant select/update

on

to ;

Steps to do database testing:

First prepare the Environment.
Run a test.
Check the test result.
Validate the result according to the expected result.
Report the findings.
The need for database testing:

Some bugs are difficult to find in Front-end testing can only be found by Database testing.
We need database testing to check if the values that an application is retrieving or storing are accurate or not.
It is hard to check complex results manually which comes through multiple tables, so if we use SQL queries we can reduce the time and get the correct result.
To check if the data is updated through the UI, the same should be updated on the database.
It is black box testing, So we can test the functionality of the software without any code review.
Types of database testing:

Non-Functional Testing:- It is used to test load testing in databases, stress testing and also deal with the performance of the database.
Structural testing:- It Deals with the column and tables testing, schema testing, Stored procedure, and view testing, checking triggers, etc.
Tools For Database testing:

Multiple tools available in the market:

Test Data Generator
Data factory
Data Generator
TurboData
SQLUnit
DBUnit
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