ReturnsTable from a Fixed formatted content

You can create a MockTable, using a fixed formatted string. This string must respect this format:

  • First row contains column names, and define the position of other rows.
  • Second row contains data types (C# types) associated to these columns (see below).
  • Other rows contain data.

Empty rows or row started with a hashtag (#) are omited.

Example of data string:

Id      Name            Birthdate      Male
(int)   (string)        (DateTime?)    (bool)

123     Denis           2020-01-12     true
456     Anne            NULL           false

You can generate a MockTable using this method.

conn.Mocks
    .WhenTag("MyTag")
    .ReturnsTable(MockTable.FromFixed(data));

The second row contains data types associated to these columns. These types are mapped like that:

Fixed format type Converted to C# type Example
(datetime)
(smalldatetime)
(date)		 DateTime 2020-01-15
(time)
(timespan)		 TimeSpan 01:02:03 ; 01:02:03.123
(guid)
(uniqueidentifier)
(id)		 Guid 9918184d-3345-4ca7-9cc6-d67cd7660b09
(decimal) decimal 123.45
(double) double 123.45
(single)
(float)		 float 123.45
(string)
(varchar)
(nvarchar)		 string abc ; "ab cd"
(char)
(nchar)		 char a
(bool)
(boolean)		 bool true ; false
(byte) byte
(sbyte) sbyte
(int16)
(short)		 short 123
(uint16)
(ushort)		 ushort 123
(int32)
(int)		 int 123
(uint32)
(uint)		 uint 123
(int64)
(long)		 long 123
(uint64)
(ulong)		 ulong 123

ReturnsTable from a CSV

You can create a MockTable, using a CSV string with all data. The first row contains the column names. The first data row defines types for each columns (like in a Excel importation).

// Columns are aligned, using a tab char (\t) and not spaces.
string csv = @" Id  Name     Birthdate
                1   Scott    1980-02-03
                2   Bill     1972-01-12
                3   Anders   1965-03-14 ";

conn.Mocks
    .WhenTag("MyTag")
    .ReturnsTable(MockTable.FromCsv(csv));

LoadTagsFromResources

To avoid creating dozens of .WhenTag().ReturnsTable(), you can use the method LoadTagsFromResources. This method search all text files embedded in your projects (whatever folder it is in) and use the name as the Tag Name. The embedded file is a fixed formatted file and must respect this format:

  • First row contains column names, and define the position of other rows.
  • Second row contains data types (C# types) associated to these columns.
  • Other rows contain data. Empty rows or row started with a hashtag (#) are omited.

Example of file SampleTable1:

Id      Name            Birthdate
(int)   (string)        (DateTime?)
123     Denis           2020-01-12
456     Anne            NULL

To embed a file in Visual Studio, add a new text file in a folder, display the file Properties (F4) and the Build Action to Embedded resource.

// Search all .txt embedded files with these names: 
// SampleTable1.txt and SampleTable2.txt
conn.Mocks.LoadTagsFromResources("SampleTable1", "SampleTable2");

After this method, the Mocks contains 2 conditions with 2 tags (SampleTable1 and SampleTable2) and 2 associated MockTable with these typed data.

You can define multiple resource files for the same Tab Name. Use the MockResourceOptions.TagSeparator (by default '-') character to separate a file identifier from the TagName. Ex. "01-MyTag.txt" and "02-MyTag.txt" will be linked to the same tag (MyTag). Ex. conn.Mocks.LoadTagsFromResources("001-MyTag") will load the file "001-MyTag.txt" and will associated to the tag "MyTag".

Entity Framework Remarks

EFCore sorts the columns of your model alphabetically, placing the keys at the beginning.

For example, using the following model, EFCore generate this SQL query.

class Employee
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public bool Male { get; set; }
    public DateTime Birthdate { get; set; }
}

SELECT [a].[Id], [a].[Birthdate], [a].[Male], [a].[Name]
  FROM [dbo].[Employee] AS [a]

So, you have to create your example file in the same way: the keys first (Id), then the columns sorted alphabetically (Birthdate, Male, Name).

Id      Birthdate     Name       Male
(int)   (DateTime?)   (string)   (bool) 

123     2020-01-12    Denis      true
456     NULL          Anne       false