CodeProject Latest postings for Hall Of Shame

Why not: // just shoot me!

esaulsberry — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:48:00 GMT

    try
{
    account.Save();
}
catch { ; } //Not good!

Can't people read the form description anymore?

Rob Grainger — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:20:00 GMT

I notice that a fair few of the recent posts here seem out of place.

Can't people read?

ps. I guess that by posting this, I now have to include myself in that category, but I'm hoping to be indulged.

"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.

Code Safety and The .Net CLR & Java Runtime

dusty_dex — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:36:00 GMT

Apologies if this subject has already been discussed before.

After stumbling upon last September's Best C# Article NET-CLR-Injection-Modify-IL-Code-during-Run-time and learning about endless security issues with the Java Runtime.

Are these platforms actually safer than conventional compiled executables?

Isn't the whole point of Data Execution Prevention (DEP) meant to stop run-time modification of running code? The CLR/JAVA Runtime engines have the only *native* code that DEP has any direct control of, but they are allowed to run without question, because of some dubious assumption that code for a virtual cpu/machine can do no real damage.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't help thinking that code under direct control of the 'real' cpu is safer than these virtualized runtime environments.

I'm not fully versed in .NET or Java coding. Anyone care to shed more light on the subject.

Life of Software Developer

Juhi Paunikar — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:32:00 GMT

I think the life of software developer is a nothing but "The journey between LOGIN & LOGOUT"
What is your opinion??

eNJOY c0ding....

for(int i=0; i
tumbledDown2earth — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:58:00 GMT
I am sure this was one of the hello-world codes for many of us ... But I wonder why the letter "i" .. I mean why on earth? With "a" the leading character why "i" ...

After sometime I found out that Fortran language (which was/is historically used for scientific calculations) use "i" as a starting character for all integer type variables, and the quickest varible to write would be "i"

Most authors and coders continued to use "i" even in C and then to C++ and then to C#, Java etc ...

Is this an interpretation?

Interesting Observation

virang_21 — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:45:00 GMT

I was looking at one old SQL stored proc and found this strange behaviour.

 
DECLARE @Scrap_Qty int
DECLARE @FilledQty int
SET @Scrap_Qty=10 --Change this to 1 and it still run
SET @FilledQty = 2
 
BEGIN
 
IF @Scrap_Qty  > @FilledQty
 declare @currDate varchar(10)   
 Set @currDate= Convert(VARCHAR(10),GetDate(),103)  
 PRINT @currDate
 
END

Look at the if condition .. it does not have BEGIN..END... To make thing interesting weather if condition is true or false you will get the output for parameter @currDate

If I add PRINT @Scrap_Qty right after IF and run it again it will only print value for @Scrap_Qty if condition is true. Which leads to question why sql is not complaining about undeclared variable if @Scrap_Qty is less than @FilledQty ?

I would have assumed if condition without BEGIN .. END block will behave like a normal one line to execute if condition is true which in above block is declaration of @currDate variable.

DECLARE @Scrap_Qty int
DECLARE @FilledQty int
SET @Scrap_Qty=10 --Change this to 1 and it won't output @Scrap_Qty
SET @FilledQty = 2
 
BEGIN
 
IF @Scrap_Qty  > @FilledQty
	PRINT @Scrap_Qty
 declare @currDate varchar(10)   
 Set @currDate= Convert(VARCHAR(10),GetDate(),103)  
 PRINT @currDate
 
END

Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *

Math is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.

Not 'Clap' but 'CLAP', dammit.

Brady Kelly — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:36:00 GMT

I'm trying out various command line option parser libraries, and those with verb or command options are few and far between. CLAP[^] is one that handles verbs, e.g. I don't need a separate Console application for each task, where the CLI library just parses the options for that command. I want a library where I can have one Console app, which accepts a command/verb and the options for that verb get parsed. So far I've found only CLAP and ManyConsole[^].

E.g. I don't want to have to have import.exe filename [-repeat] but I want console.exe import filename [-repeat].

So I built a console application called Clap, with this code:

using System;
using CLAP;
 
namespace Clap
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Parser.Run<Program>(args);
        }
 
        [Verb(Description = "Imports an Impro CSV report file.", Aliases = "import,imp")]
        static void ImportCsv(
            [Required]
            [Description("Full path to the file to import.")] string filePath)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Will import " + filePath);
        }
    }
}

When I run the application with clap /? or clap import xxx, I get the error message

Unhandled Exception: System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type 'CLAP.Parser' from assembly 'Clap, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.
   at Clap.Program.Main(String[] args)

Google provided zero leads, so the problem was not well known. Well, how well known is CLAP itself? The Version-=1.0.0.0 gave me the key clue. It looked like the app was trying to load CLAP.Parser from my Clap assembly, not the CLAP library assembly, which is version 4.3.

All it took was to change my assembly name and default namespace to ClapCli and the problem vanished, but just BTW, CLAP is very, very thin. It throws exceptions when verbs arguments are omitted, and expects you to decorate a method to do something with the exception. It also has no built in help provider, and requires you to decorate a method that is called when the user requests help. You must compose and format your own help text for every verb and option.

Production code adds a BCC to email account of developer

0bx — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:48:00 GMT

No idea why he was "spying" on a client.
We only found this out after he left and we took over the account.

private MailMessage BuildMailMessage(...)
{
...
 
mailMessage.BCC.Add("guys@address.com");
 
..
}

Nested if-else statements...

ProgramFOX — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:21:00 GMT

I found this in one of my old codes (it was a program to check whether a square was a magic square[^] or not)

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    int lefttop = Convert.ToInt16(_1.Text);
    int centertop = Convert.ToInt16(_2.Text);
    int righttop = Convert.ToInt16(_3.Text);
    int leftcenter = Convert.ToInt16(_4.Text);
    int centercenter = Convert.ToInt16(_5.Text);
    int rightcenter = Convert.ToInt16(_6.Text);
    int leftbottom = Convert.ToInt16(_7.Text);
    int centerbottom = Convert.ToInt16(_8.Text);
    int rightbottom = Convert.ToInt16(_9.Text);
    int row1 = lefttop + centertop + righttop;
    int row2 = leftcenter + centercenter + rightcenter;
    int row3 = leftbottom + centerbottom + rightbottom;
    int col1 = lefttop + leftcenter + leftbottom;
    int col2 = centertop + centercenter + centerbottom;
    int col3 = righttop + rightcenter + rightbottom;
    int dia1 = lefttop + centercenter + rightbottom;
    int dia2 = leftbottom + centercenter + righttop;
    if (row1 == row2)
    {
        if (row2 == row3)
        {
            if (row3 == col1)
            {
                if (col1 == col2)
                {
                    if (col2 == col3)
                    {
                        if (col3 == dia1)
                        {
                            if (dia1 == dia2)
                            {
                                MessageBox.Show("Your magic square is correct!");
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                MessageBox.Show("Wrong! Application will restart!");
                                this.Close();
                                Process restart = new Process();
                                restart.StartInfo.FileName = @"path name here";
                                restart.Start();
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            MessageBox.Show("Wrong! Application will restart!");
                            this.Close();
                            Process restart = new Process();
                            restart.StartInfo.FileName = @"path name here";
                            restart.Start();
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        MessageBox.Show("Wrong! Application will restart!");
                        this.Close();
                        Process restart = new Process();
                        restart.StartInfo.FileName = @"path name here";
                        restart.Start();
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    MessageBox.Show("Wrong! Application will restart!");
                    this.Close();
                    Process restart = new Process();
                    restart.StartInfo.FileName = @"path name here";
                    restart.Start();
                }
            }
            else
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Wrong! Application will restart!");
                this.Close();
                Process restart = new Process();
                restart.StartInfo.FileName = @"path name here";
                restart.Start();
            }
        }
        else
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Wrong! Application will restart!");
            this.Close();
            Process restart = new Process();
            restart.StartInfo.FileName = @"path name here";
            restart.Start();
        }
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Wrong! Application will restart!");
        this.Close();
        Process restart = new Process();
        restart.StartInfo.FileName = @"path name here";
        restart.Start();
    }
}

The quick red ProgramFOX jumps right over the Lazy<Dog>.

My latest article: Understand how bitwise operators work (C# and VB.NET examples)

My group: C# Programmers Group

[Solved] Why Do Computer Counts from Zero.

kburman6 — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:47:00 GMT

Link to the article
For More detail explanation(PDF)

Counting arrays from 0 simplifies the computation of the memory address of each element.

If an array is stored at a given position in memory (it’s called the address) the position of each element can be computed as

element(n) = address + n * size_of_the_element
//If you consider the first element the first, the computation becomes

element(n) = address + (n-1) * size_of_the_element
//Not a huge difference but it adds an unnecessary subtraction for each access.

Can anyone help me identify the strange condes that I have in my webserver log files( asp.net application) and what to do to protect my data

Member 10001202 — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 14:52:00 GMT

t=login%3CScript%20%3Ealert(%22HelloSIG%22)%3C/Script%3E

t=%3CScript+%3Ealert%28%22HelloSIG%22%29%3C%2FScript%3E]

d=hTNonAxS6pSg7xdyL1eUirZ8bPjtkz-rbl6VNlqYedqYrHs_bDcid9Hlixt8Y2moR5bKlpB-ULt3A_lBqjmmdXhRotU1&t=634998468650156250]

d=Cn8vDEmCPs6DIJo7uy2wx8MCXXrjrFmxAO4lFpLM5WYHX0ZUuWRP9mZkyIsA0rCRP-ZikEr4Dh-ukYRv7zjHSrAD9aM1&t=634998468650156250

i=faqsys%3CScript%20%3Ealert(%22HelloSIG%22)%3C/Script%3E

Yet another Subversion rant

jim lahey — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:00:00 GMT

I don't trust it.

Two of us have been working on the same file today, so we agreed he would check his changes in first and I would update mine, merge and commit the merge. I get the go ahead to update, update tells me correctly that the exact same file we've worked on is conflicted. I look at the file. no "mine" or "r.6271" markers anywhere to be seen, but a load of interface implementations are missing. I update again, to no avail. I stubbed out the interface implementations, compiled, ran all my tests and tried to commit only to be told that my file is out of date and needs updating before I can commit so I update again, and hey presto, a handful of marked conflicts in the same file. Nobody else has committed anything in that time. WTF?

Last week our build server failed to get the externals we'd set up on a repository, even though a local update got them all. Cue hours of digging around instead of actually being productive.

I really hate SVN.

Direct me to USB

C-P-User-3 — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:57:00 GMT

I'm implementing USB firmware in a device we are making.

I asked in THIS PLACE[^] (Design And Architecture) based on guessing what the desired topics are for a given forum.

I'm putting USB capability into the firmware of a device we are making.

Best Practices turned into Coding Horrors.

Paulo Zemek — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:25:00 GMT

It is a well known good practice to use StringBuilders instead of doing many string concatenations. Yet, I got really impressed when I saw a document telling to replace things like this:

  private const string SQL = 
    "SELECT " +
    "  ID, " +
    "  NAME, " +
    "  BIRTHDAY " +
    "FROM " +
    "  TABLE " +
    "WHERE " +
    "  NAME LIKE @PARAM";

By creating the StringBuilder everytime in the method where the SQL was being used. Maybe I am wrong , but I really believe consts aren't doing bad string concatenations all the time.

Logical thinking could get very complicated

Tomz_KV — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:53:00 GMT

Here is a simple stored procedure in company database that does a search and returns results in less than a second:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[WorkOrder_Search](@Description varchar(250)) 
AS
Begin
	SELECT Order_id,Dept_Code,Graphic_Number,[Description],Quantity,Date_Received as [Recv. Date],Date_Due as [Due Date],
	Date_Delivered as [Delivered Date],proof_sent_date as [Proof Date],print_date as [To Print],
	dbo.func_grOrder_GetAssigned(Order_id) as [Assign To],Status,Note, Master_Cal_ID 
	From grGraphic_Order  
	where [Description] like '%' + @Description + '%'
end

But it used to be a really "BIG" stored procedure as shown below that did the same search and took about 5 minutes to return results. It did return the same results as the above does.

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[WorkOrder_search](@Description varchar(250))
AS
begin
	SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER  OFF    
	SET ANSI_NULLS  OFF 
	SET NoCount ON
 
	Declare @sql varchar(8000)
	Declare @Orig_1 varchar(1000)
	Declare @Declare varchar(200),
	@From varchar(100),@Into varchar(50),@Groupby varchar(300),
	@Orderby varchar(400),@Select varchar(400),@Select1 varchar(400),@Select2 varchar(300),
	@cursor1 varchar (500),@cursor2 varchar(4000),@create varchar(4000)
 
	set @Orig_1 = ''
 
	Create table #Assignto_temp(Order_id int, Assignto_names varchar(500))
 
	Insert into #Assignto_temp(Order_id )
 
	Select gro.order_id
	From grassignto gro
	Inner join wfpmauser wf
	On gro.user_id = wf.user_id
	group by gro.order_id
 
	declare @order_number int, @Assignto varchar(255), @List_names varchar(255),@order_number_prev int
	declare assignto Cursor
	Local
	Forward_only
	for
 
	Select gro.order_id,Wf.First_name+' '+Wf.Last_name as Assignto
	From grassignto gro
	Inner join wfpmauser wf
	On gro.user_id = wf.user_id
	order by order_id 
 
	open assignto
	Fetch Next from assignto into @order_number, @Assignto
	While @@Fetch_Status=0
	begin
			select @List_names=Assignto_names from #Assignto_temp where order_id=@order_number
	 	
		if @List_names is null 
		begin
			update #Assignto_temp
			set Assignto_names=@Assignto
			where order_id=@order_number
		end
		else
		begin
			update #Assignto_temp
			set Assignto_names=@list_names + ',' + @Assignto
			where order_id=@order_number
		end
		  Fetch Next from assignto into @order_number, @Assignto
	end
	close assignto
	deallocate assignto
 
	Set @Declare ="Declare @Orig_1 varchar(1000),@Originator varchar(100),@order_id int,@Orig varchar(300) set @Orig_1 = '' " 
	Set @Select =  " SELECT distinct gro.* "
	Set @Into = "Into #tmp1 "
	Set @From = "FROM grGraphic_Order Gro left join grOriginator gr on gro.order_id = gr.order_id "
 
	Set @Orderby = "ORDER BY Gro.Graphic_number,Gro.dept_code Desc  "
	Set @Select2 = " SELECT Order_id,Dept_Code ,Graphic_Number,Description,Quantity,Date_Received as [Recv. Date],
	Date_Due as [Due Date],Date_Delivered as [Delivered Date],proof_sent_date as [Proof Date],print_date as [To Print],
	Status,Note, master_cal_id [Master Calendar ID] From #tmp1  ORDER BY dept_code,Graphic_number  "
 
	Set @Create = "Create table #Assignto_temp(Order_id int, Assignto_names varchar(500))
			Insert into #Assignto_temp(Order_id )
			Select gro.order_id
			From grassignto gro
			Inner join wfpmauser wf
			On gro.user_id = wf.user_id
			group by gro.order_id
 

 			declare @order_number int, @Assignto varchar(255), @List_names varchar(255),@order_number_prev int
			declare assignto Cursor
			Local
			Forward_only
			for
		
			Select gro.order_id,Wf.First_name+' '+Wf.Last_name as Assignto
			From grassignto gro
			Inner join wfpmauser wf
			On gro.user_id = wf.user_id
			order by order_id 
		
			open assignto
			Fetch Next from assignto into @order_number, @Assignto
			While @@Fetch_Status=0
			begin
					select @List_names=Assignto_names from #Assignto_temp where order_id=@order_number
			 	
				if @List_names is null 
				begin
			
					update #Assignto_temp
					set Assignto_names=@Assignto
					where order_id=@order_number
			
				end
				else
				begin
					update #Assignto_temp
					set Assignto_names=@list_names + ',' + @Assignto
					where order_id=@order_number
				end
 
				  Fetch Next from assignto into @order_number, @Assignto
 
			end
			close assignto
			deallocate assignto
 
	SELECT #tmp1.Order_id,Dept_Code ,Graphic_Number,Description,Quantity,Date_Received as [Recv. Date],
	Date_Due as [Due Date],Date_Delivered as [Delivered Date],proof_sent_date as [Proof Date],print_date as [To Print],
	isnull(tmp.assignto_names,'Not Assigned') as [Assign To],Status,Note, #tmp1.Master_Cal_ID 
	From #tmp1 LEFT Join #Assignto_temp tmp ON #tmp1.order_id = tmp.order_id ORDER BY Dept_Code,Date_Received Desc"
 
	Select @sql=@Declare + @Select + @Into + @From + ' where Description like ' 
				+ char(39) + '%' + @Description + '%'  + char(39)+ @Orderby  + @create 
	Exec(@sql)
end

TOMZ_KV

Unambiguously Ambiguous

AspDotNetDev — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 01:53:00 GMT

    '
    Finished Never Implemented

Just came across that code comment above a function. Not sure what it means. Maybe they got fed up and decided that they were finished working (though the task itself was incomplete)? Or maybe the code is complete, but never got put to use?

Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

Let's "switch" to Something Else

Tom Delany — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:31:00 GMT

C++ code.

This is either brilliant, or just bloody awful. I'm coming down on the side of "bloody awful":

recv in the curr structure below is declared as:

    
    BYTE recv[64];

    DWORD   verb;
    ...
    verb = (upper[curr->recv[0]] << 24) + (upper[curr->recv[1]] << 16) + (upper[curr->recv[2]] << 8) + 0x20;
 
    switch (verb)
    {
    case 'CMD ':
       ...
       break;
 
    case 'MON ':
       ...
       break;
 
    case 'END ':
       ...
       break;
 
    case 'EXT ':
       ...
       break;
 
    default:
        ...
        break;
    }

WE ARE DYSLEXIC OF BORG. Refutance is systile. Your a$$ will be laminated.

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: People who know binary and people who don't.

Things that make you go WTF...

Gary Wheeler — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:32:00 GMT

    if (result != Common.ErrorMsg.ErrorNone)
{
    this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke((ThreadStart)delegate()
    {
    });
    return;
}

I found this in code that is guaranteed to be called on the dispatcher's thread. Sigh².

Software Zen: delete this;

That was weird...

Brisingr Aerowing — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:57:00 GMT

I created a Windows Forms Control Library in one of my projects, and VS2012 displayed the 'Designer Error' page with the message that no classes in the user control could be designed.

Strangely, VS showed all references as missing. Changing the target framework to 4.0 then back to 4.5 fixed the issue.

I don't know what happened, but it startled me.

Gryphons Are Awesome! ‮Gryphons Are Awesome!‬