I am just starting to use tsqlt inside redgate's sql test. I have to deal with quite large tables (large number of columns) in a legacy databases. What is the best practise to insert some fake data into such tables (the 'script as' insert statements are quite large) - hence they would make my 'arrange part' of the unit test literally unreadable. Can I factor out such code? Also is there a way to not only script the insert statement but also fill in some values automagically? Thanks.
I would agree with your comment that you don't need to fill out all of the columns in your insert statement.
tSQLt.FakeTable removes all non-null constraints from the columns, as well as computed columns and identity columns (although these last two can be reinstated using particular parameters to FakeTable).
Therefore, you only need to populate the columns which are relevant to your code under test, which is usually only a smaller subset of columns from the table(s).
I wrote about this in a bit more detail in this article which also contains a few other 'gotchas' you may want to know.
Additionally, I'd suggest that if you have a number of tests which all need the same table faked and data inserted, that you consider using a SetUp routine - this is a Stored procedure in the test class (schema) which is called SetUp, and is called by tSQLt before each test in that schema. They won't show in RedGate's SQL Test window as yet (I've suggested it as an improvement), but will still work. This can make it harder to see - but does modularise that code thus reducing identical, repeated code.