Test data for relational queries
Heikki Mannila, Kari‐Jouko Räihä · 1985
An automatic technique for generating a comprehensive test database for a given query is studied.The test database is large enough to cover all essentially different situations under the given set of dependencies, and also large enough to illustrate the effect of each operation appearing in the query.On the other hand, the database attempts to do this in a minimal way.The method can be applied in the testing of queries, e.g. as an aid in learning a new query language.The basis of the construction is the definition of an adequate test case.We characterize this concept using Armstrong relations and show that adequate examples have the desired properties.We also give a method for producing reasonably small example databases for select-project-join queries where each relation scheme appears at most once in the query.