Adding Test Data to Databases During Flyway Migrations

How to generate "realistic but fake" SQL Server test data, using SQL Data Generator, and then use SQL Data Compare to produce an INSERT script that Flyway can run to load the data into the database. The technique is useful for managing small volumes of test data or for "topping up" existing data when you create new entities. Read more

How to Generate Fake Test Data for SQL Server

How to use a SQL random data generator to fill SQL Server tables with realistic test data, to shift left database unit testing, integration testing and performance testing so that it is performed during the early stages of database development. Read more

Getting your SQL Server Development Data in Three Easy Steps

Phil Factor takes a staged approach to generating development data, creating one project that simply copies data from an existing database, another that copies most data but generates any personal or sensitive data, and a third that starts from 'anonymized' data and then generates other columns entirely and increase the number of rows for testing. Read more

How to Complain Bitterly using SQL Data Generator

How to use reverse regex expressions in SQL Data Generator to fill a text column in SQL Server with fake, but very realistic complaints. Read more

Using a Variable-length Datatype Without Explicit Length: The Whys and Wherefores (BP007/8)

If you declare a variable-length string , or coerce a string, without specifying its length, you can fall foul of ‘silent’ string truncation. Some developers resort to using the (MAX) specification, which is a mistake too. Phil Factor explains the dangers and then offers a workaround for the problem, when you're importing text and simply don't know the correct length of each string. Read more

Pseudonymizing a Database with Realistic Data for Development Work

How to use SQL Data Generator, and PowerShell to obfuscate personal data (names), while retaining the same distribution of data, so that the test database behaves like the original. Read more

Pseudonymizing your data with SQL Data Generator

Starting from a database view, as the basis for a typical sales reports, Phil factor shows how to generate a data-masked version of this report, which the Tax Men can safely pore over. Read more

Realistic, simulated data for testing, development and prototypes

Generating realistic test data is a challenging task, made even more complex if you need to generate that data in different formats, for the different database technologies in use within your organization. Dave Poole proposes a solution that uses SQL Data Generator as a ‘data generation and translation’ tool. Read more

Generating test data in JSON files using SQL Data Generator

Phil Factor shows how to use SQL Data Generator to produce as much pseudonymized data as you are likely to need for your testing, and then convert it to JSON so that you can also use it to test your MongoDB and Azure Cosmos databases, or to test out a new web service. Read more

Basic data masking for development work using SQL Clone and SQL Data Generator

Richard Macaskill describes a lightweight copy-and-generate approach for making a sanitized database build available to development teams, using SQL Clone, SQL Change Automation and SQL Data Generator. Read more

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