utPLSQL: Unit Testing for Oracle PL/SQL

utPLSQL
A Unit Testing Framework for
Oracle PL/SQL Code
Achieving PL/SQL Excellence
Steven Feuerstein
Original creator of utPLSQL, not currently active on project (2016)
Visit the Github Repo for utPLSQL: http://https://github.com/utPLSQL

Aw, Gee, Mom, do I have to test
my code? Only if you want:
 Successful applications
– That is the whole point, after all.
 Successful applications on time
– "We don't have time to test"? Hah! Solid testing improves the
chances of putting out quality code on time.
 Developer and user confidence
– It's a wonderful feeling to know that our code really and truly
works.
– Our users then love us and support us.

Different Kinds of Tests
 Functional, System, Integration tests
– Written by the software customer, it answers the question
“What do I need to verify before I am confident this feature
works?”
 Many other types of tests
– Stress tests – real-world workload testing
– Monkey tests – tests responses to unusual conditions
– Parallel tests – compares behavior of new and old systems
 And then there are unit tests...
– Written by the developer, they test
individual units (procedure or function
in PL/SQL)
The focus in
this
presentation.

Wouldn't it be great if...
 It was easy to construct tests
– An agreed-upon and effective approach to test construction that
everyone can understand and follow
 It was easy to run tests
– And see the results, instantly and automatically.
 Testing were completely integrated into my
development, QA and maintenance processes
– No program goes to QA until it has passed a battery of tests
– Anyone can maintain with confidence, because my test suite
automatically validates my changes

POLL
 How do you (or your team) unit test your PL/SQL
code today?
 Possible answers:
– Everyone does their own thing and we hope for the
best.
– Our users test our code.
– We have a formal test process
– We use automated testing software

Typical Development
and Testing Scenario
 Let's walk through a typical development/test
flow, critique it, and then take a look at how you
might do the same thing with utPLSQL
 We'll use a very simple example:
– building an improvement to the SUBSTR function

Improving upon SUBSTR
 SUBSTR returns the sub-string specified by start
position and number of characters.
just10 := SUBSTR (full_string, 3, 10);
Grab 10 characters staring
from 3rd position
 Suppose I have the starting and
ending positions (or even sub-
strings). How do I use SUBSTR
to solve this problem?
mystring := SUBSTR (full_string, 5, 17); -- start and end? Nah...
mystring := SUBSTR (full_string, 5, 12); -- end – start?
mystring := SUBSTR (full_string, 5, 13); -- end – start + 1?
mystring := SUBSTR (full_string, 5, 11); -- end – start - 1?
Grab everything between the
5th and 17th position
But which of these
does the job?

A Straightforward Abstraction
 Create a “between string” function that works with
starting and ending positions
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION betwnStr (
string_in IN VARCHAR2,
start_in IN INTEGER,
end_in IN INTEGER
)
RETURN VARCHAR2
IS
BEGIN
RETURN (
SUBSTR (
string_in,
start_in,
end_in – start_in + 1
)
);
END;
myString := betwnStr (yourString, 5, 17);

A Truly Crude
Testing Technique
 Let’s see…what should I check for?
SQL> exec DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (betwnstr ('abcdefgh', 3, 5));
cde
And so on, and so forth...very time consuming, very haphazard...and
what happens when you want to run the tests a second time?
 Oh, and what about this?
ab
 Here's a good one:
cdefgh

Slightly Better:
Build a Test Script
 Let’s see…what should I check for?
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (betwnstr ('abcdefgh', 3, 5));
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (betwnstr ('abcdefgh', NULL, 5));
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (betwnstr ('abcdefgh', 3, NULL));
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (betwnstr ('abcdefgh', -3, -5));
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (betwnstr ('abcdefgh', -3, 0));
END;
/
SQL> @betwnstr.tst
cde
ab
cdefgh
fgh
Yielding this
output:
Which tells us
what precisely?

Problems with Typical Testing
 Almost entirely ad hoc
– No comprehensive effort to compile test cases
– No infrastructure to record cases and administer tests
 Difficult to verify correctness
– If you wrote the program you might know that it was supposed
to be “abc” or “abcd”
– But what about somebody who comes along to maintain the
code?
 Reliance on the user community to test
– Since we are never really sure we’ve tested properly, we rely
on our users (or, we are lucky, the QA department) to finish our
job
There has got to be a better way!

How About Extreme Programming?
 "Extreme programming" sounds, well, extreme
– It really isn't
– It takes well-accepted ideas about programming and
takes them to extremes
 Resources on extreme programming:
– www.xprogramming.com
– www.extremeprogramming.org
– Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck
– Extreme Programming Installed by Ron Jeffries, et al
– Planning Extreme Programming by Ron Jeffries, et al

Common Sense Taken to
Extremes
 If code reviews are good, we'll review code all the time
(pair programming)
 If testing is good, everybody will test all the time (unit
testing), even the customers (functional testing)
 If design is good, we'll make it a part of everybody's daily
business (refactoring)
 If simplicity is good, we'll always leave the system with
the simplest design that supports its current functionality
(the simplest thing that could possibly work)
A selection of extremes from XP Explained, Beck

Extreme Unit
Testing Principles
 Write unit tests first!
 Code a little, test a lot
 Build automated red light-green light tests
If testing is good, everybody will test all the time

Write Unit Tests First
 What is my program supposed to do?
– By writing the test first, you concentrate more on the interface
than the implementation
 Write unit tests…
– Before you start writing your program
– Before you fix a bug (turn each bug report into a test case)
– To "document" each enhancement request -- then implement
All of string from
starting point.
Positive # greater than
length of string
Positive #
NULLSmaller positive #Positive #
NULLNULLNOT NULL
NULLNULLNULL
ResultEnd ValueStart Value

Code a Little, Test a Lot
 We are all in a hurry to get our coding done, but the
reality is that most of our time is spent on debugging,
not writing code
– We need to develop our code cleaner the "first time"
 Incremental development, coupled with comprehensive
testing, will improve productivity and code quality
simultaneously
– Make small changes, then test
– Add small pieces of functionality, then test
– Constantly add to your test cases for the unit test

Automated, Red Light-Green
Light Tests
 If we are going to build lots of tests and run them often,
we need to be able to run those tests easily
– This includes the setting up and cleaning up of test data and
other elements
– If this process is not automated, developers will not test
 A developer should be able to determine at a glance
whether the code passed its unit tests
– Do not leave it up to the developer to analyze the results to
determine the status of the tests
 This is called the red-light, green-light approach
– Your code does not work until you get a "green light" – 100%
success

Testing the utPLSQL Way
 A unit testing “framework” for PL/SQL
developers
– Set of processes and code that conform to the
Extreme Programming unit testing principles
SQL> exec utplsql.test ('betwnstr')
.
> SSSS U U CCC CCC EEEEEEE SSSS SSSS
> S S U U C C C C E S S S S
> S U U C C C C E S S
> S U U C C E S S
> SSSS U U C C EEEE SSSS SSSS
> S U U C C E S S
> S U U C C C C E S S
> S S U U C C C C E S S S S
> SSSS UUU CCC CCC EEEEEEE SSSS SSSS
.
SUCCESS: "betwnstr"

utPLSQL Architecture
 utPLSQL is a fun demonstration of the use of dynamic SQL (really,
dynamic PL/SQL) and packaged data
– utPLSQL.test constructs the names of and executes the setup, unit test
and teardown procedures based on the program name you provide.
– utAssert populates a collection with results (failure) data
ut_Setup
ut_TestMe
ut_Teardown
utPLSQL.test
Test Engine
Your Test Package
Results Array
Test for Nulls
Invalid ID
Valid ID
Start date too late
End date too early
Name unique
Report Results
1
2
3
4
Assert EQ
Assert NULL
Assert EqTable
Assertion API
5

Steps in Using utPLSQL
Step 1. Download and install utPLSQL
Step 2. Choose a program to test and identify the test cases
Step 3. Build a test package that incorporates those test cases
Step 4. Run your test using the utPLSQL engine

Download and Install utPLSQL
 Visit http://oracle.oreilly.com/utplsql
 Unzip, open up the documentation, install the
utPLSQL software base, and you are ready to
test
– Installs in Oracle7, Oracle8 and Oracle8i
– You can create a separate schema to hold utPLSQL
source or install a version for each developer

Choose Program,
Define Test Cases
 You can test stand-alone procedures or packages, test
the entire set of programs in a package or test a subset
of those programs
– Start with a small program to try out the approach.
 Build your grid of input values and expected outputs.
 Once test cases are defined, it is time to translate them
into code...the test package!

Build a Test Package
 Build a test package that
contains a unit test for each
program in your package
 Must conform to the
standard utPLSQL API:
– Public setup and teardown
procedures
– Separate procedures for each
unit test
 Best approach: generate the
starting point of the test
package with the utGen
package
SQL> exec utGen.testpkg ('betwnstr');
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE ut_betwnstr
IS
PROCEDURE ut_setup;
PROCEDURE ut_teardown;
PROCEDURE ut_BETWNSTR;
END ut_betwnstr;
/
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY ut_betwnstr
IS
PROCEDURE ut_setup ... END;
PROCEDURE ut_teardown ... END;
PROCEDURE ut_BETWNSTR IS
BEGIN
utAssert.this (
'Test of BETWNSTR',
BETWNSTR(
STRING_IN => '',
START_IN => '',
END_IN => '')
);
END ut_BETWNSTR;
END ut_betwnstr;

Example of Gen'd Test Code
 It can take lots of code
to properly test a
program.
 The more you can
generate, the better.
PROCEDURE ut_BETWNSTR
IS
against_this VARCHAR2(2000);
check_this VARCHAR2(2000);
BEGIN
-- Define "control" operation for "normal"
against_this := SUBSTR ('abcdefg',0,2);
-- Execute test code for "normal"
check_this :=
BETWNSTR (
STRING_IN => 'abcdefgh'
,
START_IN => 0
,
END_IN => 2
);
-- Assert success for "normal"
utAssert.eq (
'normal',
check_this,
against_this
);
...
100% Generation!

Complete Unit Test Proc
 Every unit test
procedure consists of
three main parts (which
are sometimes
collapsed together,
depending on the
simplicity of the code
being tested):
– Set up the control
(which might already be
done with the set up
procedure).
– Run the code to be
tested.
– Compare results using
the utAssert package
PROCEDURE ut_del1
IS
fdbk PLS_INTEGER;
BEGIN
/* Delete that finds no rows. */
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE '
DELETE FROM ut_DEL1
WHERE employee_id = -1';
te_employee.del (
-1, rowcount_out => fdbk);
utassert.eqtable (
'No rows deleted', 'EMPLOYEE',
'ut_DEL1');
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS
THEN
utassert.this (
'DEL1 exception ' || SQLERRM,
SQLCODE = 0
);
END;
Control
Test
Compare
Error Failure

Apply utAssertion Validators
 The utAssert offers a set of pre-defined assertion programs
that test for the condition you specify and record any failures
for later red light-green light reports. You can assert that:
– Two scalars, tables, collections, pipes, files and queries are equal
– A value is NULL or is NOT NULL
– A Boolean expression is TRUE
PROCEDURE ut_BETWNSTR IS
BEGIN
...
utAssert.eq ('Typical valid usage',
BETWNSTR(STRING_IN => 'abcdefg',
START_IN => 3, END_IN => 5),
'cde');
utAssert.eqFile ('Dump book data',
file1, loc1,
file2, loc2);

Set up & Tear Down Test Data
 The ut_setup and ut_teardown procedures manage
any data structures needed to run your tests
– These programs are run automatically before and after
tests procedures are executed.
PROCEDURE ut_teardown IS
BEGIN
BEGIN
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE ut_employee';
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN NULL;
END;
BEGIN
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE ut_DEL1';
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN NULL;
END;
...
This is an
example of a
portion of the
tear-down used
to test a table
encapsulation
package

Run Your Test
 Once you have built your test package, you can
simply "hand it over" to utPLSQL for testing with a
simple one-line call:
 You can also construct test "suites" of multiple
packages to test and then run that suite:
SQL> exec utPLSQL.test ('betwnstr');
SQL> exec utPLSQL.testSuite ('PLVision');

See Your Results Instantly
 You are notified of success or failure
– When there is a failure, you see the descriptions of
failed test cases, plus information about the cause of the failure
SQL> exec utplsql.test ('betwnstr')
.
> FFFFFFF AA III L U U RRRRR EEEEEEE
> F A A I L U U R R E
> FFFF A A I L U U RRRRRR EEEE
> F AAAAAAAA I L U U R R E
> F A A III LLLLLLL UUU R R EEEEEEE
.
FAILURE: "betwnstr"
.
UT_BETWNSTR: Typical valid usage; expected "cde", got "cd"
UT_BETWNSTR: IS NULL: NULL start
UT_BETWNSTR: IS NULL: End smaller than start

Change Your Testing Ways
 utPLSQL can make a dramatic difference in your ability
to test and your confidence in the resulting code
 With utPLSQL, you build a comprehensive "library" of
unit tests as you build your application
– These tests and all their test cases can be passed on to other
developers
– Anyone can now enhance or maintain the code with
confidence. Make your changes and run the tests. If you get
a green light, you're OK!

Challenges to Using utPLSQL
 Build the test packages
– This can be almost as complicated as writing your application
code.
 Set up/change the test process in your group
– It can be very difficult to move from ad-hoc testing to formal
testing.
 Powerful, well-designed GUI interfaces can make a big
difference.
– Quest is currently exploring how to support utPLSQL in its
development tools.

utPLSQL: Unit Testing for Oracle PL/SQL

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utPLSQL: Unit Testing for Oracle PL/SQL