Testing User Defined Functions (UDF's)

DBA's tend to think of testing as something done by testers! In this video Andy Novick discusses why he writes simple tests for all his user defined functions and gives you a view into why those tests are useful both now and later.

Andrew Novick is a SQL Server consultant building business solutions with the Microsoft tools. His expertise in database design, T-SQL coding, SQL Server security, database performance tuning, and database partitioning can be a valuable asset to many projects. Andrew Novick also offers training and mentoring services to relevant projects. His writing on computing can be seen at his web site ht...

Marc Moshman on 2/17/2009

Great Idea!

Don Weigend on 2/17/2009

Putting various test cases in the comments is a great idea. Regarding this video, the volume seems to be too low, I had to turn up my speakers to a high setting in order to hear. Also it would be great if there was a “start video” button since the videos tend to start playing before the entire page is rendered after selecting the “play it now” option.

BrandonGalderisi on 2/17/2009

It's pretty basic stuff.

John M on 2/17/2009

Need to slow down

Carla Wilson on 2/19/2009

Thanks for the tip!

Tim Harms on 2/24/2009

I like this idea. I'll have to implement this with my new UDFs.

Ladislau Molnar on 4/4/2009

I think that creating and keeping those tests is a great idea. But it should be pushed forward a little bit. Those tests should be automated and run regularly the same way unit tests are. I suggest looking at T.S.T.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGkGSkoh-CE. It makes it easy not only to test scalar functions but table functions, stored procedures and views. It has automatic rollback and other very useful features.

David Lundell on 5/27/2009

Good start for testing. I have been doing something very similar for years usually at the end of the DDL script. I get more freedom there than putting it in the comments. I was hoping to learn more about using a automated testing framework with this video

Caleb Bell on 7/16/2009

This is a good technique. It would be nice to see a video on using Visual Studio's testing tools.

Dean Gross on 9/9/2009

great idea that was clearly explained. Would be even more helpful if it included some tips on formatting and structuring the test for ease of execution.