SHF: Small: Collaborative Research: Constraint-Based Generation of Database States for Testing Database Applications

要使数据库应用程序在部署时正常运行并具有可接受的性能，测试是必不可少的。在实践中，数据库应用软件的供应商在向数据库所有者出售或集成他们的软件之前，通常有必要对他们的软件进行充分的测试。但是，测试数据库应用程序的成本非常高。特别是，生成理想的数据库状态非常耗时且具有挑战性，而数据库状态是测试数据库应用程序的测试输入的重要部分。然而，很少有研究为生成数据库状态以实现各种测试目标提供可伸缩的、有效的工具支持。本研究旨在通过开发新的技术(1)生成理想的数据库状态以满足给定查询结果集上的给定约束，(2)将上述技术应用于各种测试任务，以及(3)探索更复杂的情况，例如多个交互查询中的约束，从而为数据库应用程序充分生成数据库状态。该研究促进了对与测试数据库应用程序相关的基本问题的理解，以及进行此类测试的实用技术的设计和实现。该项目的更广泛影响包括将研究整合到教育计划中，并加强教学和研究基础设施。

Testing is essential for database applications to function correctly and with acceptable performance when deployed. In practice, it is often necessary for vendors of database application software to test their software adequately before selling or integrating their software to the database owner. However, testing database applications is very costly. In particular, it is time-consuming and challenging to generate desirable database states, an important portion of test inputs for testing database applications. However, little research has been conducted to provide scalable, effective tool support for generating database states to achieve various testing objectives.This research aims to adequately generate database states for database applications by developing novel techniques for (1) generating desirable database states to satisfy the given constraints on result sets from the given query, (2) applying this preceding technique on a variety of testing tasks, and (3) exploring more complicated situations such as constraints in multiple interacting queries. The research advances understanding of fundamental issues related to testing database applications and the design and implementation of practical techniques to carry out such testing. Among the broader impacts of the project includes integration of the research into education programs and enhancement of teaching and research infrastructure.