DSL to generate test data
- by queen3
There're several ways to generate data for tests (not only unit tests), for example, Object Mother, builders, etc. Another useful approach is to write test data as plain text:
product: Main; prices: 145, 255; Expire: 10-Apr-2011; qty: 2; includes: Sub
product: Sub; prices: 145, 255; Expire: 10-Apr-2011; qty: 2
and then parse it into C# objects. This is easy to use in unit tests (because deep inner collections can be written in single line), this is even more convenient to use in FitNesse-like system (because this DSL naturally fits into wiki), and so on.
So I use this and write parser, but it's tedious to write each time. I'm not a big expert in DSL/language parsers, but I think they can help here. What would be the right one to use? I only heard about:
DSL (I mean, any DSL)
Boo (that I think can do DSL)
ANTLR
but I don't even know which one to pick and where to start.
So the question: is it reasonable to use some kind of DSL to generate test data? What would you suggest to do so? Are there any existing cases?
