Standard and User-Defined Data Types
Data Types
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The following figure shows the relationship between data types, datapool columns,
and the values assigned to test script variables during playback:
Standard and User-Defined Data Types
The two kinds of datapool data types are:
s
Standard
data types
that are included with Rational Test. These data types include
commonly used, realistic sets of data in categories such as first and last names,
company names, cities, and numbers.
s
User-defined
data types
that you create. You must create a data type if none of the
standard data types contain the kind of values you want to supply to a test script
variable.
User-defined data types are useful in situations such as the following:
When a field accepts a limited number of valid values. For example, suppose a
datapool column supplies data to a test script variable named
color
. This
variable provides the server with the color of a product being ordered. If the
product only comes in the colors red, green, blue, yellow, and brown, these are
the only values that can be assigned to
color
. No standard data type contains
these exact values.
First Name
FNAME
Virtual Tester 1
Virtual Tester 3
Virtual Tester 2
FNAME="Frederick"
FNAME="Mary"
FNAME="Frank"
Charlotte
Frederick
Mary
Frank
Lauren
Eleanor
William
Victor
..., Frederick, ...
..., Mary, ...
..., Frank, ...
..., Lauren, ...
..., Eleanor, ...
..., Charlotte, ...
..., William, ...
..., Victor, ...
..., ..., ...
During datapool generation,
the First Name data type
populates the FNAME
datapool column with
appropriate values.
During playback, the FNAME
column supplies a different
value to the FNAME variable
in each instance of the script.
