---
title: "Database outputs"
description: "Writing results into a table or through a procedure — what the three database outputs share"
url: "https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/database-outputs/"
---
# Database outputs


## When to use it

When results should be kept across runs and reported on — a history of pass rates, a dashboard in Power BI, an alert built on a query — or when something should happen the moment a test fails (a procedure can do anything the database lets it). A database output also has the rows of the tests that finished when a run is killed; a file output has nothing. It is not a file to hand someone; pair it with [XLSX](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/xlsx/ "XLSX") for that.

## How to set it

The target is a data source the project already defines; the output names it with `Database` and says where to write with `Table` **or** `Procedure`:


**Properties**


**Data sources**


Name
: DWH

Provider
: SqlServer@2

Connection string
: %DWH_CONNECTION_STRING%




**Output**


Database
: DWH

Table
: dbo.CatTestResult





**YAML**


```yaml
Data sources:
- Name: DWH
  Provider: SqlServer@2
  Connection string: "%DWH_CONNECTION_STRING%"

Output:
- Database: DWH
  Table: dbo.CatTestResult
```




| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `Database` | Name of a data source in the project. Its provider must be `SqlServer@1`, `SqlServer@2`, `Postgres@1` or `Oracle@1` — CAT refuses any other with `… This is not yet implemented.` The data source may come from a list, like any other. |
| `Table` | Table to insert into, schema-qualified (`dbo.CatTestResult`, `public.cat_test_result`, `AERO.CAT_TEST_RESULT`). |
| `Procedure` | Procedure to call instead. SQL Server and PostgreSQL: the procedure itself. Oracle: the **package**; the procedure inside it must be named `SAVE_TEST_RESULT`. |

Exactly one of `Table` and `Procedure`; neither, or both, fails the open. Not available on the Starter and Professional plans (MS Excel only).

## What it looks like

One row per test. The [sample run](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/overview/#the-sample-run "The sample run") in a table with the default columns, the wide ones abbreviated:

```text
 ExecutionGuid  Project  FullName                                               TestResult  StartedOn                    RawMessage                                        Exception                            Expectation       ThreadNumber
 78084065-…     Flights  [Smoke tests].[Airline dimension matches the source]   Passed      2026-08-21 09:06:38.2510955  The sets match.                                   NULL                                 sets match        0
 78084065-…     Flights  [Data quality].[No booking without a passenger]        Failed      2026-08-21 09:06:38.3346170  No row was expected, but at least 1 row exists…   NULL                                 set is empty      0
 78084065-…     Flights  [Smoke tests].[Flights table is loaded]                Error       2026-08-21 09:06:38.4778644  Error when executing the test: Invalid object…    Invalid object name 'dbo.Flights'.   set is not empty  0
```

## Details

**Columns are matched by name, not by position.** Before the run CAT reads the columns of the table (or the parameters of the procedure) and maps every one whose name is on the [Properties](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/properties/ "Properties") list — matched by [naming convention](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/project-file/naming-conventions/ "Naming conventions"), so `TestResult`, `test_result` and `TEST_RESULT` all work, and a parameter may carry the prefix `C_`. Columns it does not recognize are left alone; they must be nullable or have a default, or the insert fails. So the table may have three columns or thirty: drop what you do not need, add your own (with a prefix or suffix, so a future CAT column cannot collide).

**Creates the objects when it may.** A table that does not exist is created with every column; a procedure that does not exist is created together with its table (`dbo.CatTestResult`, `public.cat_test_result`, `CAT_TEST_RESULT` in the package's schema). That needs `CREATE` permission on the schema — which a CAT account usually should not have; create the objects from the scripts on the database's page and give CAT `INSERT` (or `EXECUTE`) only.

**One row per test, as it finishes.** Each execution thread keeps its own connection and its own prepared `INSERT` or `CALL`, so parallel runs write in parallel and a killed run leaves the rows written so far. The command is prepared once, before the first test — a table altered mid-run is not noticed until the next run.

**The whole run shares one `Execution Guid`**; a report groups by it. `Started On` and `Finished On` are UTC.

## Related

* [SQL Server](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/sqlserver/ "SQL Server") · [PostgreSQL](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/postgres/ "PostgreSQL") · [Oracle](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/oracle/ "Oracle") — the scripts and each database's specifics.
* [Properties](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/properties/ "Properties") — the column names CAT recognizes.
* [Settings](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/outputs/settings/ "Settings") — the `Output` key.