Repeatable Unit Tests require that the job under test produce deterministic data based on a set of predefined inputs and parameters. Calculations based on the current date are common in DataStage jobs but will cause the output produced by jobs to change depending on the date the job executed. This page outlines practices aimed at ensuring jobs using current date calculations are able to be validly tested.

Transformer Stages using CurrentDate(), CurrentTime() or CurrentTimestamp() functions

Unless your date calculation requires an exact date/time a record was being processed, the standard CurrentDate(), CurrentTime() and CurrentTimestamp() functions can be substituted with the DSJobStartDate, DSJobStartTime and DSJobStartTimestamp macros. This enables you to set them to a specific value during testing. Add DSJobStartDate, DSJobStartTime and/or DSJobStartTimestamp to the parameters clause of the Unit Test Specification and set the appropriate date and time values used during Unit Testing.

Example

Open

 

... when: parameters: DSJobStartDate: 2012-01-15 DSJobStartTime: 11:05:01

Ignoring columns which are known to be non-deterministic

Rather than ensuring that a job under test produces deterministic data, you may decide to exclude one or more output columns from Unit Test comparisons. This can be done by adding the columns to be ignored to the then clause of the Unit Test Specification.

Example

Open

 

given: ... when: ... then: - stage: Transform link: Output path: Transform-Output.csv ignore: - CREATION_DATE - LAST_UPDATED