soapUI DataSource TestStep

DataSource step allows the user to read data from different external sources (Databases, Excel files, directories, etc). DataSource step pairs up with DataSource Loop to allow for iterating over a sequence of TestSteps that should be executed for each row of values available in the DataSource. 
To make it simple if you are familiar with a for loop on any programming language, think it in that way. Imagine the starting of the for loop is the DataSource step and instead of the vaiable in for loop think that the data is retrieved from external sources. End of the for loop can be compared to DataSource Loop.

Let us see an example of DataSource and DataSource Loop.

See the below image it has a DataSource and DataSource Loop and there is one TestRequest in between them.

The steps between DataSource and DataSource Loop (In this case step "TestRequest") will be executed based on the number of entries retrieved by DataSource.

As mentioned above, DataSource can be configured for different input sources, lets see how can we configure this using an excel sheet. See the below image.

While selecting the excel file, make sure the extension is .xls and not .xlsx. In this case, the First workSheet will be selected by default and the values in the first two columns starting from cell "A2" will be assigned to the Properties Data1 and Data2. For example if there are 5 rows with values in the excel, the test step "Test Request" will be executed 5 times. The values in Data1 and Data2 can be accessed anywhere within the scope of the loop.