Sample Data Creation Tool (mainly for Databases)

Question

I’m thinking through some database design concepts and believe that creating sample data simulating real-world volume of my application will help solidify some design decisions.

Does any anyone know of a tool to create sample data? I’m looking for something that’s database and platform neutral if possible (from MySQL to DB/2 and Windows to UNIX) so to test the design across different systems/architectures. I’m visioning some tool that you can:

1. point to a database table(s) (some configuration of the DSN, etc.)
2. introspect the fields and based on the field... (point-and-click or add some configuration)
3. have a means for expressing how to create sample data (MySQL Sample Data Creator is the kind of thing I vision but I think their'd be some more options like commit frequency so to create very large data sets... millions or billions of rows... don't think this tool would scale to the volume of data I want to create)
4. push a button and go (depending on your parameters, this may take a long time)

Any thoughts? Sure, I could write an app to do this but it seems so generic that I shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Answer 1

I cannot help you with MySQL or DB/2 but, in case anyone gets to this answer with a need for MS SQL Server, I can recommend the Data Generator from Red Gate.

Answer 2

Something like DBMonster?

This page also has a listing of many DB data generators.

Answer 3

DBMonster is fine but I prefer databene benerator as I explained it in this answer to a similar question.

Answer 4

Our test data generator, Datanamic DB Data Generator can do this for you. Works with MySQL. It uses default "generator settings" when loading your tables the first time. You can then "fine-tune" the fields and/or choose other "generators".