Hands-On Software Engineering with Python

Testing Data Persistence

Repeatable unit testing of code is rarely more critical than in the case of data persistence. Code can change or be replaced over time, perhaps even to the point of changing to a completely different system, written in a completely different language, but once data exists, it can potentially outlive any number of code bases that make use of it. The data in a system, it could be argued, is where the real business value usually exists, so testing of the processes that interact with it, and have the potential to destroy that value, is extremely important.

With that in mind, the bulk of this chapter will be focused on the following:

• Writing the unit tests for the data object and related classes created in this iteration: ...