Testing, specifically when having database dependant code

Couldn't you mock out your db calls?

I guess so, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of testing, specially on Controller level?

My current approach is to use the seed function to copy the few tables I need to do testing on from the database backup (virtu12_vtester)  to the testing database (ci4test). Both databases live on the same MySQL server and ci4test user has read access to the database backup:

PHP Code:

class CITestSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public function run()
    {
        $tables = [ 'country', 'territories' ];
        foreach ($tables as $t)
        {
            if ( ! $this->db->tableExists('db_' . $t))
            {
                $this->db->query("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS ci4test.db_$t SELECT * FROM virtu12_vtester.$t");
            }
        }
    }
}