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Constraints and the Test-Driven Database

By: Sam Bendayan

Automated Unit Testing for database development has recently been promoted via the Agile Programming Methodologies. Although Test-Driven database development is an excellent discipline to adopt, it should be considered alongside the well-established practice of using Database Constraints. By using constraints, we already have the means to create test-driven databases. Database Constraints are, essentially, just tests. They are tests of Data Integrity. They also conform to Agile testing practices in the sense that they are usually designed first, before you write a single line of code, in a similar way to “Test-First Development”.

Database Constraints offer enormous value to any development project. Opting not to use them is equivalent to deciding not to test the output of your code.

Why are Constraints Important?
By definition, a “Database Constraint” is something which restricts the possible values which the database will accept. Constraints are declarative, which means that you declare them as rules that MUST be adhered to by the entire system you are developing. They are also bound to the database structure and fire automatically when needed, which makes them difficult to violate. Any violation of these constraints results in a “hard failure”, which returns errors to the application and forces the application-developers to deal with the issue immediately.

Database Constraints are a valuable by-product of the practice of identifying and clarifying beforehand those data rules that you need to follow before you develop the rest of your application. These rules depend on the nature of the business being supported by the application. They could be as trivial as checking the validity of an email address or zip code or as complex as checking for compliance with IRS Tax Rules. This process encourages the team to come to a consensus about what the business rules mean, which is surely one of the most demanding parts of any IT project.

If you can enshrine these rules in constraints, the database will alert you if you happen to violate any of these business rules in the heat of the development effort, and make you fix the issue before it gets out to the customer.

Large software teams in complex projects are faced with the daunting task of ensuring that everyone who is involved in the project has a clear comprehensive idea of all the rules that the system must adhere to throughout the development cycle. With constraints in place, this task becomes largely unnecessary because database constraints provide a safety net which gives the development team the confidence that they could not unwittingly violate any business rules.
So What Are Constraints?

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Constraints and the Test-Driven Database