Integration testing your T-SQL stored procedures saves debugging time and makes database programs more reliable and easier to reuse and maintain. In these respects, integration testing has many of the same benefits as unit testing individual procedures. The big difference between the two testing methodologies is that unit testing focuses on the internal logic of one procedure, and integration testing tries to identify problems that might happen when one procedure (the parent or "outer" procedure) calls another procedure (the child or "inner" procedure). Another important difference is that integration testing usually follows unit testing. After ridding two or more procedures of any internal defects, you can integration-test the procedures by checking for defects in the outer procedure's call statements and in any data or error messages the inner procedure returns to the outer procedure.

Author: Dan Sawyer
Published: SQL Server Magazine, October 2004
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