What Kind of Scripts Should I Have in My Programming Arsenal?

Scripts that make it easier for the computer programmer to do his or her job are the ones I collect.  If they don't make it easier, I should not keep them.




1. Scripts that identify instances of records in the database that you can use to test a variety of scenarios in your computer program.

2. Scripts that make it easy for me to return the data back to the state it was in before I ran my test. For example, if I run a process that updates the DATE_UPDATED in a record to today's date where its value was previously NULL, I want a script that updates the DATE_UPDATED back to NULL after I run my test, so that I can run my test again.

3. Scripts that allow me to use shorthand notation during SQL programming.  The most common script that I use in this regard is alter session set current_schema = xxx; so that I don't have to prefix every database table with its schema name.