# \[TIP\] Ensure your test data is valid

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tip-ensure-your-test-data-is-valid/58658>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 24, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tip-ensure-your-test-data-is-valid/58658 "2006-04-24T16:26:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jonny)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tip-ensure-your-test-data-is-valid/58658/1 "2006-04-24T16:26:08Z")

</div>

Recently I wanted to check that my test data was valid. Seems like a  
reasonable thing to want to do so I thought I’d share the rake task. Add  
this code to a rake file in lib/tasks and run with rake  
db:fixtures:validate. It will print out the class, record id and error  
messages for any model objects that fail validation.

Enjoy!  
-Jonathan.

–

namespace :db do  
namespace :fixtures do  
desc “Load fixtures into the current environment’s database and  
display  
invalid objects”  
task :validate do  
Rake::Task[‘db:fixtures:load’].invoke

```
  Dir.glob(RAILS_ROOT + '/app/models/*.rb').each { |file| require 

```

file }

```
  Object.subclasses_of(ActiveRecord::Base).each do |klass|
    klass.find(:all).reject(&:valid?).each do |record|
      puts "#{record.class}: id=#{record.id}"
      p record.errors.full_messages
      puts
    end rescue nil
  end
end

```

end  
end

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jonny)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tip-ensure-your-test-data-is-valid/58658/2 "2006-04-24T19:51:21Z")

</div>

Hello Jonathan !

2006/4/24, Jonathan V. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> ```
> Rake::Task['db:fixtures:load'].invoke
> 
> ```

WARNING: db:fixtures:load loads the fixtures in the current  
environment, development by default. Call using “RAILS\_ENV=test” to  
prevent that.

Excellent work !

Bye !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jonny)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 9:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tip-ensure-your-test-data-is-valid/58658/3 "2006-04-24T21:56:25Z")

</div>

Jonathan V. wrote:

> puts “#{record.class}: id=#{record.id}”

Nifty idea. Suggestion: replace your explicit use of the ‘id’ field with  
the actual primary key, so it will work with classes that use a  
non-default primary key.

key = record.class.primary\_key.  
puts “#{record.class}: #{key}=#{record.send(key.to\_sym)}”

–  
Josh S.  
[http://blog.hasmanythrough.com](http://blog.hasmanythrough.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jonny)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tip-ensure-your-test-data-is-valid/58658/4 "2006-04-24T22:36:22Z")

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Marcel Molina Jr. wrote:

> You always have the id method as a way of accessing a record’s primary  
> key, regardless of what its actual column name is:

Oh yeah, I went a bit overboard. I guess I knew :id would always work,  
but I blinked at the use of the hardwired “id” as the name of the key in  
the output. My brain is still woozy from the conference (at which you  
were greatly missed!)

–  
Josh S.  
[http://blog.hasmanythrough.com](http://blog.hasmanythrough.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jonny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jonny)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tip-ensure-your-test-data-is-valid/58658/5 "2006-04-24T22:07:55Z")

</div>

On Mon, Apr 24, 2006 at 09:56:25PM +0200, Josh S. wrote:

> Jonathan V. wrote:
> 
> > puts “#{record.class}: id=#{record.id}”
> 
> Nifty idea. Suggestion: replace your explicit use of the ‘id’ field with  
> the actual primary key, so it will work with classes that use a  
> non-default primary key.
> 
> key = record.class.primary\_key.  
> puts “#{record.class}: #{key}=#{record.send(key.to\_sym)}”

You always have the id method as a way of accessing a record’s primary  
key,  
regardless of what its actual column name is:

% cat id-is-available-regardless.rb  
require ‘rubygems’  
require ‘active\_record’

ActiveRecord::Base.establish\_connection(:adapter =\> ‘sqlite’, :database  
=\>  
‘:memory:’)  
ActiveRecord::Schema.define do  
create\_table :people, :id =\> false do |t|  
t.column :custom\_pk, :integer  
t.column :name, :string  
end  
end

class Person \< ActiveRecord::Base  
set\_primary\_key :custom\_pk  
end

person = Person.create  
p person.id

% ruby id-is-available-regardless.rb  
– create\_table(:people, {:id=\>false})  
-\> 0.0357s  
1

marcel