Using Test.loadData() for many level self-relationship data

Question

I use loadData method very often in my test methods for custom settings and objects where lookup fields are not necessary for my case. Now, I ran into a situation where I need to create hundreds of test records. They are all configuration records. The object has self relationship and it is 4 level deep.

Ex: An Account has 3 child accounts and each child has 4 grand-child accounts and each grand child has 10 children. In total they are in hundreds. The sad part is, I need all of them for my test cases.

I don't want to use seeAllData = true and wondering if I can build relationships with in CSV (Single or multiple) and use it in my test method. Or is there any other better way of doing this? Thanks.

Answer 1

I ended up creating 4 static resources. One for each level in relationship.

I gave Ids 0,1,2,3... for the top level.

00,01,02... for the second level

000,001,002... for the third level.

No ids for the bottom level as it doesn't need to be referenced anywhere.

It worked perfectly fine. I basically implemented Answer from this thread for multi level self relationships.