Naming Strategy for Test Data

When you are in the testing/development cycle how often are you filling out the same data over and over just to run your test? You can go the route of typing in a bunch of random letters and numbers. There is a good chance you’ll actually type the same random string for more than one test. And now you have a collision or duplicate test data.

First Name: asdf

First Name: asdfjkl

First Name: asdf

First Name: asdlkfj

...

Instead of random characters, start off with the current time. This way you won’t have collisions and if you are comparing a bunch of data you can tell which tests were run when. No confusion, no collisions, and no wasting time trying to come up with a unique name.

First Name: 314pmtest

First Name: 316pmtestwithFlagA

First Name: 317pmtestwithFeature234

First Name: 330pmtestwithNoFlags

...

Let me know what you think and if you have your own strategy for test data.