{"id":300,"date":"2015-12-02T16:26:05","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T15:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oso.com.pl\/?p=300"},"modified":"2015-12-31T08:27:21","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T07:27:21","slug":"tester-toolbox-101-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oso.com.pl\/?p=300&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Tester toolbox 101 – Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are three\u00a0reasons I can think of that make Microsoft Excel one of the tools I use often enough to make it into my basic\u00a0toolbox.<\/p>\n

Creating the test data<\/h3>\n

Imagine testing an application that handles creating user accounts. You checked\u00a0the happy path<\/a> and a sample user was created. But can it handle a hundred? Ten thousand? You are an engineer so you start thinking about writing a script to create the test data. Writing scripts is fun, but scripting everything is not always the most efficient way to do stuff. Enter Excel and if your application supports CSV files all you have to do is just write first couple lines and then drag to create as much\u00a0sample data you need.\u00a0You can then use this\u00a0data set in your automation, load testing, etc. etc.<\/p>\n

[WPGP gif_id=”330″ width=”600″]<\/p>\n

Excel will also create date ranges, long strings, random data… you name it.<\/p>\n

Reporting<\/h3>\n

Now that’s an important part of every tester’s life. Typical reports\u00a0requested from testers include\u00a0testing progress report, product quality report, or bugs outstanding. And while some of reports needed are provided by the tools you already use, some specific ones\u00a0may be missing. I can guarantee though that every Test Case Management System<\/a>\u00a0or Issue Tracking System<\/a> will let you export data into a format that Excel can consume: directly into an XLS\u00a0file, CSV, or via some sort of API. Last resort is using ODBC to talk to the TCM or ITS database directly.<\/p>\n

I found the following Excel skills useful:<\/p>\n