Avoiding Governor limits on test classes

Question

We have a custom application created on the force.com platform which has a lot of unwanted SOQL Queries and DML Statements written in a poor format.

We are trying to stabilize the code now and looking for creating a test class which can run some valid business scenarios.
We have a test data creation class. When creating data in our test class, we are getting close to the soql and dml governor limit. Once the data creation is done, our actual test class which runs the scenarios fails on governor limits.

So my question is can I create 2 test methods, one where I can create test data in one context and another method to run my business scenarios which will have a different context?
That way I can get more limits and run my test classes

Answer 1

Set up your test data in @testSetup. To avoid using your test governor limits, start with Test.startTest():

@isTest class MyUnitTestClass {
  @testSetup static void testSetup() {
    Test.startTest();
    // Do your DML operations here
    Test.stopTest();
  }
  @isTest static void test() {
    // You have to re-query your records
    // Account a = [SELECT Id, Name... FROM Account]; etc...
    Test.startTest();
    // Test your business logic here
    Test.stopTest();
  }
}

Of course, this won't necessarily completely fix your problem, but it gives you a full extra set of governor limits for setting up your test data, which will probably help significantly.