Schema and transformers¶

Since version 1.7.0 of Datafaker it's possible to specify transformation schema.

It also provides a set of ready to use transformers:

CSV
JSON
SQL
YAML
XML
Java Object

Schema¶

Schema is a set of rules describing what should be done to transform data from Datafaker representation to one of the supported formats. One of the main advantages of Schema is that the same schema could be used to transform to different formats.

Schema can be used in 2 ways: it could be used to generate data from scratch or it could be used to transform existing data.

Example of schema definition:

JavaKotlin

    Schema<String, String> schema =
        Schema.of(
            field("first_name", () -> faker.name().firstName()),
            field("last_name", () -> faker.name().lastName()),
            field("address", () -> faker.address().streetAddress()));

    val faker = BaseFaker()

    val schema = Schema.of(
        field("first_name",
            Supplier { faker.name().firstName() }),
        field("last_name",
            Supplier { faker.name().lastName() }),
        field<String, String>("address",
            Supplier { faker.address().streetAddress() })
    )

It is also supported nested(composite) fields e.g.:

JavaKotlin

    Schema.of(
        compositeField("key", new Field[]{field("key", () -> "value")}));

    Schema.of(compositeField("key", arrayOf(field("key", Supplier { "value" }))))

CSV transformation¶

CSV transformer could be build with help of CsvTransformer.CsvTransformerBuilder e.g.

JavaKotlin

     CsvTransformer<String> transformer =
        CsvTransformer.<String>builder().header(true).separator(separator).build();

    val transformer = CsvTransformer.builder<String>().header(true).separator(separator).build()

The following can be configured:

the separator and quotes could be specified with separator() and quote()
with or without header also could be specified with header()

To generate data based on a schema just call generate against schema:

JavaKotlin

     String csv = transformer.generate(schema, limit);

    val csv = transformer.generate(schema, limit)

Also it's possible to use schemas to transform existing data. E.g. there is a collection of Name objects and we are going to build csv of first and last names based on this collection:

JavaKotlin

     Schema<Name, String> schema =
        Schema.of(field("firstName", Name::firstName), field("lastname", Name::lastName));

    CsvTransformer<Name> transformer =
        CsvTransformer.<Name>builder().header(false).separator(" : ").build();
    String csv =
        transformer.generate(
            faker.<Name>collection().suppliers(faker::name).maxLen(limit).build(),
            schema);

    val faker = BaseFaker()

    val schema = Schema.of(field("firstName", Name::firstName), field("lastname", Name::lastName))

    val transformer = CsvTransformer.builder<Name>().header(false).separator(" : ").build()
    val csv = transformer.generate(
        faker.collection<Name>().suppliers(Supplier { faker.name() }).maxLen(limit).build(), schema
    )

JSON transformation¶

JSON transformation is very similar to CSV. The main difference is that JSON supports nested values which could be handled with help of compositeField.

Example of JSON generation:

JavaKotlin

    Schema<Object, ?> schema = Schema.of(
        field("Text", () -> faker.name().firstName()),
        field("Bool", () -> faker.bool().bool())
    );

    JsonTransformer<Object> transformer = JsonTransformer.builder().build();
    String json = transformer.generate(schema, 2);

    val faker = BaseFaker()

    val schema: Schema<String, *> = Schema.of(
        field("Text", Supplier { faker.name().firstName() }),
        field("Bool", Supplier { faker.bool().bool() })
    )

    val transformer = JsonTransformer.builder<String>().build();
    val json = transformer.generate(schema, 2)

To use composite fields it should be defined on Schema level and nothing more.

SQL Transformation¶

Note: right now only INSERT is supported.

It generates a number of INSERT statements. There are 2 modes: batch and non batch generation.

Batch generation means that one INSERT statement contains several rows to insert. Since different databases could have different syntax there is initial support for different dialects. Dialect could be specified during SQLTransformaer build e.g:

JavaKotlin

    SqlTransformer<String> transformer =
        new SqlTransformer.SqlTransformerBuilder<String>()
            .schemaName(tableSchemaName).dialect(SqlDialect.ORACLE).build();

    val transformer = SqlTransformer.SqlTransformerBuilder<String>()
        .schemaName(tableSchemaName).dialect(SqlDialect.ORACLE).build()

Dialect also handle SQL quote identifiers, quotes and other SQL dialect specifics.

An example of batch mode:

JavaKotlin

    Faker faker = new Faker();
    Schema<String, String> schema =
        Schema.of(field("firstName", () -> faker.name().firstName()),
            field("lastName", () -> faker.name().lastName()));
    SqlTransformer<String> transformer =
        new SqlTransformer.SqlTransformerBuilder<String>()
            .batch(5)
            .tableName("MY_TABLE")
            .dialect(SqlDialect.POSTGRES)
            .build();
    String output = transformer.generate(schema, 10);

    val faker = Faker()
    val schema: Schema<String, String> = Schema.of(
        field("firstName", Supplier { faker.name().firstName() }),
        field("lastName", Supplier { faker.name().lastName() })
    )
    val transformer = SqlTransformer.SqlTransformerBuilder<String>()
        .batch(5)
        .tableName("MY_TABLE")
        .dialect(SqlDialect.POSTGRES)
        .build()
    val output = transformer.generate(schema, 10)

will generate 2 INSERT each containing 5 rows e.g.

INSERT INTO MY_TABLE ("firstName", "lastName")
VALUES ('Billy', 'Wintheiser'),
       ('Fernando', 'Sanford'),
       ('Jamey', 'Torp'),
       ('Nicolette', 'Wiza'),
       ('Sherman', 'Miller');
INSERT INTO MY_TABLE ("firstName", "lastName")
VALUES ('Marcell', 'Walsh'),
       ('Kareen', 'Bode'),
       ('Jules', 'Homenick'),
       ('Lashay', 'Gaylord'),
       ('Tyler', 'Miller');

Advanced SQL types¶

It also supports generation of ARRAY, MULTISET and ROW types. Please be aware that not every database engine supports it and datafaker could do it for every dialect. To generate ARRAY schema field should supply and array. To generate MULTISET schema field should supply a list (SQL MULTISET could contain duplicates) To generate ROW schema field should supply a compositeField

e.g.

JavaKotlin

    Schema.of(field("ints", () -> new int[]{1, 2, 3}));

    val schema: Schema<String, IntArray> = Schema.of(field("ints", Supplier { intArrayOf(1, 2, 3) }))

will lead to

INSERT INTO "MyTable" ("ints") VALUES (ARRAY[1, 2, 3]);

JavaKotlin

    Schema.of(field("names_multiset", () -> Collections.singleton("hello"));

    val schema: Schema<String, Set<String>> = Schema.of(field("names_multiset", Supplier { Collections.singleton("hello") } ))

will lead to

INSERT INTO "MyTable" ("names_multiset") VALUES (MULTISET['hello']);

JavaKotlin

    schema.of(compositeField("row", new Field[]{field("name", () -> "2")});

    Schema.of(compositeField("row", arrayOf(field("name", Supplier { "2" }))))

will lead to

INSERT INTO "MyTable" ("row") VALUES (ROW('2'));

YAML transformation¶

YAML transformation is very similar to CSV.

The following is an example on how to use it:

Java

    final BaseFaker faker = new BaseFaker();

    YamlTransformer<Object> transformer = new YamlTransformer<>();
    Schema<Object, ?> schema = Schema.of(
        field("name", () -> faker.name().firstName()),
        field("lastname", () -> faker.name().lastName()),
        field("phones", () -> Schema.of(
            field("worknumbers", () -> ((Stream<?>) faker.<String>stream().suppliers(() -> faker.phoneNumber().phoneNumber()).maxLen(2).build().get())
                .collect(Collectors.toList())),
            field("cellphones", () -> ((Stream<?>) faker.<String>stream().suppliers(() -> faker.phoneNumber().cellPhone()).maxLen(3).build().get())
                .collect(Collectors.toList()))
        )),
        field("address", () -> Schema.of(
            field("city", () -> faker.address().city()),
            field("country", () -> faker.address().country()),
            field("streetAddress", () -> faker.address().streetAddress())
        ))
    );

    System.out.println(transformer.generate(schema, 1));

will generate yaml with nested fields:

name: Mason
lastname: Bechtelar
phones:
  worknumbers:
    - (520) 205-2587 x2139
    - (248) 225-6912 x4880
  cellphones:
    - 714-269-8609
    - 1-512-606-8850
    - 1-386-909-7996
address:
  city: Port Wan
  country: Trinidad and Tobago
  streetAddress: 6510 Duncan Landing

Java Object transformation¶

Java Object transformer could be built with help of JavaObjectTransformer.

When building JavaObjectTransformer you should provide a class to be used as a template for generated objects.

JavaKotlin

    public static class Person {
       private String firstName;
       private String lastName;
       private Date birthDate;
       private int id;
    }

    data class Person(
        var firstName: String,
        var lastName: String,
        var birthDate: Date,
        var id: Int
    )

Then you should provide a schema for the class.

JavaKotlin

    JavaObjectTransformer jTransformer = new JavaObjectTransformer();
    Schema<Object, ?> schema = Schema.of(
        field("firstName", () -> faker.name().firstName()),
        field("lastName", () -> faker.name().lastName()),
        field("birthDate", () -> faker.date().birthday()),
        field("id", () -> faker.number().positive()));

    System.out.println(jTransformer.apply(Person.class, schema));

    val jTransformer = JavaObjectTransformer()
    val schema: Schema<Any, Any> = Schema.of(
        field("firstName", Supplier { faker.name().firstName() }),
        field("lastName", Supplier { faker.name().lastName() }),
        field("birthDate", Supplier { faker.date().birthday() }),
        field("id", Supplier { faker.number().positive() }))

    println(jTransformer.apply(Person::class.java, schema))

will generate object with fields populated with random values based on specified suppliers.

Populating Java Object with predefined Schema¶

You can use predefined schema to populate Java Object or default schema for the class. Schema should be declared as a static method with return type Schema<Object, ?>.

JavaKotlin

      public static Schema<Object, ?> defaultSchema() {
        var faker = new Faker(Locale.forLanguageTag("fr-en"), new RandomService(new Random(1)));
        return Schema.of(field("name", () -> faker.name().fullName()));
      }

    fun defaultSchema(): Schema<Any, Any> {
        val faker = Faker(Locale.forLanguageTag("fr-en"), RandomService(Random(1)))
        return Schema.of(field("name", Supplier { faker.name().fullName() }))
    }

Then you should provide a class to be used as a template for generated objects. Class should be annotated with @FakeForSchema annotation with path to the schema method as a value.

Note: If default schema and class template are in the same class, you can omit full path to the method and use only method name.

JavaKotlin

    @FakeForSchema("net.datafaker.annotations.FakeAnnotationTest#defaultSchema")
    public class Person {
        private String fullName;

        public String getFullName() {
            return fullName;
        }

        public void setFullName(String fullName) {
            this.fullName = fullName;
        }
    }

    @FakeForSchema("net.datafaker.annotations.FakeAnnotationTest#defaultSchema")
    data class Person(
        var fullName: String
    )

Then you can use net.datafaker.providers.base.BaseFaker.populate(java.lang.Class<T>) to populate object with default predefined schema.

JavaKotlin

    BaseFaker faker = new BaseFaker();
    Person person = faker.populate(Person.class);

    val faker = BaseFaker()
    val person = faker.populate(Person::class.java)

Or you can use net.datafaker.providers.base.BaseFaker.populate(java.lang.Class<T>, net.datafaker.schema.Schema<java.lang.Object, ?>) to populate object with custom schema.

JavaKotlin

    BaseFaker faker = new BaseFaker();
    Person person = faker.populate(Person.class, Schema.of(field("name", () -> faker.superhero().name())));

    val faker = BaseFaker()
    val person = faker.populate(Person::class.java, Schema.of(field("name", Supplier { faker.superhero().name() })))