Automatically generated test data to a DB from a schema?

Question

I have a discussion-db, and I need a great amount of test data, for different sized samples. Please, see the ready SELECT, JOIN and CREATE-queries, please scroll down in the link.

1. How can I automatically generate test data to the db?

2. How to generate test data in different sized samples?

3. Is there some ready tool?

Answer 1

I'm not sure how to get automatically generated data and insert it into the database (I'm sure you could pull it off with a python script or something), but if you're just looking for endless blabbering to stick into a db, this should be helpful.

Answer 2

Here are a couple of suggestions for free tools that generate test data:

• Databene Benerator: supports many JDBC-capable database brands, uses XML format compatible with DbUnit, GPL license.

• Super Smack: originally a load-test tool for MySQL, it also supports PostgreSQL and it includes a generator of mock data.

I asked a similar question here on StackOverflow in February, and the two choices above seemed like the best options.

Answer 3

I'm not a postres person, but in many other DBs I've used, a simple mechanism for generating large quantities of test data is a cross join. The technique is particularly useful for generating large quantities of test data.

Here's a nice blog post on it (SQL Server specific though).