Database Testing is primary in software testing because it verifies whether data and information submitted and stored in the database are valid or not. Database testing helps to save data loss & terminated transaction data and no unauthorized access to the information. So, It is important for testers to have good knowledge of the database for testing.
Database testing includes performing data validity, data integrity, and performance checks on the database and its associated procedures, triggers, and functions.
Let’s take an example, of what to perform in Database Testing.
Consider an application that stores the transaction details every day for users and stores the details in the database. The following checks should be performed when testing a database for this type of application:
- The transaction’s data from the application should be stored correct info of the user in the database.
- Data should not be lost when it is loaded into the database.
- Completed transaction data should be stored in the database.
- Access authorization to the database should be maintained. User information should not be given to unauthorized people.
What is the purpose of Database Testing?
The main purpose of database testing is to make sure they follow the various aspects:
- ACID Properties
- Data mapping
- The Business Rules’ accuracy
- Data integrity
1. ACID properties
The database testing will ensure that the transaction has the ACID properties.
A database performs these 4 properties known as ACID, which are as follows:
1. Atomicity means, that if any part of the transaction is failed, means the database state does not change. An atomic system must ensure Atomicity in each and every state like power failures, errors, and crashes.
2. Next is consistency, which ensures any transaction will channel the database from one valid state to another. Any data written to the database must be valid based on all defined rules, including constraints, cascades, triggers, and any combination thereof.
3. The property of isolation states that if more than one transaction is being executed simultaneously and in parallel, all transactions will be executed as if they were the only transaction in the system.
4. The durability property checks that once a transaction has been committed, it will remain in that state even in the event of power loss, crashes, or errors. Even if the database crashes immediately, the results need to be stored permanently.
2. Data Mapping
Data mapping is a feature of database testing that is focused on making sure that the data passes between the application and the database.
There are some important features in the data mapping:
- We evaluate whether the user interface or front-end methods are consistently mapped to the equivalent fields in the database table.
- This mapping information is typically specified in the requirements documents.
- Whenever a certain action is executed in the front end of an application, a similar CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update and delete) action should invoke at the back end. A tester will have to verify whether the correct action is invoked and, if so, whether the invoked action is successful.
Also read Database testing types
3. The Business Rules’ accuracy
More complex databases mean more complex components like relational constraints, triggers, stored procedures, etc. So, testers will have to come up with the right SQL queries in order to validate these complex objects.
4. Data Integrity
Data integrity ensures that the data contained in the database is both correct and consistent. In order to achieve this purpose, the data stored in the database must adhere to certain types of rules. There must be correct and consistent data in the database. The DBMS provides several methods for implementing such types of constraints (rules) as Primary Key, Secondary Key, and Foreign key.
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