I'm having a lot of fun writing common_schema, an SQL project which includes views, tables and stored routines.

As the project grows (and it's taking some interesting directions, in my opinion) more dependencies are being introduced, and a change to one routine or view may affect many others. This is why I've turned the development on common_schema to be test driven.

Now, just how do you test drive an SQL project?

Well, much like the way you test any other project in your favorite programming language. If its functions you're testing, that's all too familiar: functions get some input and provide some output. Hmmm, they might be changing SQL data during that time. With procedures it's slightly more complex, since they do not directly return output but result sets.

Here's the testing scheme

Background Knowledge

It appears this depiction of the Canadian political left and right originated as far as I can tell by johnnyslow [at] gmail [period] com around the end of the 2005. I recently heard the below of what I’m reposting on Charles Adler radio show.

I was so impressed by this analogy I had to post it for others that may have not read it yet.

Classic Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or
shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

THE END

The Canadian Version