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The idea was to convey that a mere check for numbers would have been enough in this case instead of relying on .NET's exception handling to assign default value for missing items (and unnecessarily create and dispose exception objects). And when I was debugging the code, it was throwing exception all over the places because the values were supposed to come from config elements which were missing. It's a bad practise even from a debugging perspective.
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Shameel wrote: a mere check for numbers
That's worse; it can still go wrong, a string of "9999999999999999999999999999999999999999" for instance. Using a built-in method is much simpler and if you have to protect against Exception, then do so, it doesn't cost anything.
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Sounds like you didn't RTFA:
"Only primitive string processing was affected by raised exceptions"
I'd describe a conversion from an string to an int as fitting that description.
Generally, however, I agree - people are too fixated with the costs of exceptions. If there's any I/O going on at all, its negligible.
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Shameel wrote: atrAge
Shameel wrote: strAge
I think I see the problem!! 
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That was just a typo. I renamed the variables to save the identity of the culprit. 
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Shameel wrote:
That was just a typo. I renamed the variables to
save the identity of the culprit.
I know... it was funny though!!
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This isn't bad, just outdated. Before the introduction of TryParse this is basically how you had to do it (though I would use int.Parse not Convert.ToInt32, but one calls the other I think). Although you could argue it should be in a single utility method, it's only a couple of lines so it's hardly worth it.
A try block uses almost no resources, and the exception will only be thrown when the requested string isn't a valid number, so I doubt there's any noticeable performance impact from doing this.
Annoying to deal with when you have a better solution available to you now, and you have debugging set to look at caught exceptions? Yeah, probably. But it's not really bad code. If you're complaining that the debugger stops on it, try adjusting your settings – otherwise you can use that as an argument against any catch blocks and I'm sure you can see how that becomes an absurd position to hold pretty quickly.
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10!
BobJanova wrote: one calls the other
Yes, Convert calls the specific class' method, Int32.Parse in this case -- that's why I tell people not to use Convert.
modified 15-Dec-11 11:18am.
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BobJanova wrote: you have debugging set to look at caught exceptions?
yes, I have to do that to handle some subtle exceptions that are caught and swallowed (empty catch blocks - now that deserves a separate post by itself).
BobJanova wrote: try adjusting your settings
I hate to keep doing it every now and then to accomodate this kind of code. Unfortunately, for now, I have to live with it since I cannot change the behavior of existing "working code".
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But my point is that 'this kind of code' is basically any code that uses exceptions.
Swallowed exceptions generally deserve a post here, yes. This code handles the exception to put the variable into a valid state so it's not in the same category.
Perhaps better than changing your settings would be to make the config file valid.
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An app I support interfaces to a large number of 3rd party webservices. Often the documentation is poor or incomplete. Last week I integrated to one that seemed pretty well documented. At one point it says
xxxxxx can be called in one of four modes:
● Redirect (default)
● XML
● JSON
● iFrame
The mode can be specified by setting the 'mode' query string parameter
and subsequently refers to "XML mode" several times. I coded up the interface, ran some tests; and got non-specific errors every time. Eventually the 3rd party company got back to me with the following explanation:
mode=XML should be mode=xml i.e. the "xml" is case sensitive.
      
It works now but it's wasted two hours of my time and delayed the integration by the best part of a week.
TEST THE DOCUMENTATION TOO, YOU WALLYS!
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Agreed...but how does 2 wasted hours delay integration nearly a week?
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If does when they don't reply to your query for 5 days!
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As is our wont to point out, the API is wrong. 
It should be an enumeration and then case doesn't come into it OR it should be throwing a fracked exception saying "Unknown mode, must be 'redirect', 'xml', 'json' or 'iframe'."
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done.
Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H
OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre
I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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Yeah, the documentation is wrong too but the API should be giving you a clear exception if you give it invalid input.
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Open API's should always work via 'design by contract'. As long as the pre-conditions are met, a valid post-condition will be reached, otherwise an exception is raised and the state is unchanged.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done.
Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H
OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre
I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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Absolutely agree with you. However, regardless of the API itself, the documentation was remiss in not specifying what the actual parameters required are. "Test-driven development" does not mean sending data to the API to "see what happens"! Documentation is PART of the deliverables for virtually any project. Whilst we may not like it, documenting our stuff is vital and not only that, but the documentation needs testing too. By that I mean if you follow the documentation, without any pre-existing knowledge, is the outcome correct? Whether the API returns just "Invalid" or "Invalid; should be one of 'xml','redirect' ..." etc doesn't change the fact the documentation is just plain wrong, by omission in this case. The depressing thing is this isn't new or unusual; I blogged about this over 2 years ago http://www.smallofficesolutions.co.uk/wordpress/index.php/2009/05/11/acuracy-is-improtant/[^] and in that case the API itself was returning a message referring to "missing field XmlData" whereas the documentation referred to "xmlData" (and the documentation was right in that instance, the API was wrong!)
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From another perspective: we got some requirements from a customer on what we should build for them.
They want a Form with lots of information on many tabs.
The documented description of a tab, for example the 'customer' tab: "Shows info on the customer"... Really? I'm glad we got requirements for that!
This was written by people who specialize in writing those documents.
I guess writing good documents just isn't easy.
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}
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Over the years I have seen lots of bad documentation; from missing specs to APIs that are just plain wrong. I am no longer surprised when the docs do not match what the app actually does. Apparently documentation is an afterthought at many companies.
Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.
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This stuff drives me up the wall!!!
bool is_queue_empty(void)
{
if (queue_length==0)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
Or this:
bool counter_zero = counter==0 ? true : false;
Or this:
if (isUDPSetup()==true)
{
if ((forceSend==false))
{
...
}
}
(Variable names have been changed to protect the guilty)
Or this *New one*:
void setNeedsUpdate(bool update)
{
if ((update==true))
NeedsUpdate=true;
else
NeedsUpdate=false;
}
modified 6-Dec-11 9:06am.
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You are a lucky man if that's all that makes your life miserable. Some of this is awkward, especially the second example, but where exactly is the horrible part? What damage is done? Does it not work or are there possible side effects? Does it lead to worse code being generated by the compiler?
I think the first two just show a clumsy coding style, but no real harm comes from it. Except, of course, curling up your toenails when you have to read it.
Usually I do the last one myself. It is at least the same way you compare any other variable (if (x == 0), so why not if (flag == true)?) and I prefer to make it absolutely clear what I want to accomplish. The compiled code remains absolutely the same, no matter how you write it. That's why I see the last one more as a matter of preferences, but not as anything important.
And from the clouds a mighty voice spoke:
"Smile and be happy, for it could come worse!"
And I smiled and was happy
And it came worse.
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Screw the compiler. It takes longer to read and understand, therefore it sucks.
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And it obviously makes the reader scared of what else might come from that code who's developer can't understand even a booleans...
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
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i might be showing my age here but there used to be a readability test known as "the telephone test" (from Kerningham and Plauger) - Read your code to someone over the phone. If they can't understand it, try writing the code again. admittedly this has its problems but one of the upshots was that you should just name your booleans for the thing they test and then it reads well. also, comparing to "== true" or "== false" obviously breaks this readability test
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