Testing the obvious....

Rob Grainger

Not a new horror, nonetheless something tells me this If statement may be redundant...

fileName = ""

If Len(fileName) = 0 Then
    fileName = Left(DBEngine.Workspaces(0).Databases(0).Name, i) & "REF"
End If

_Erik_

Even the fileName = "" is redundant here.

Mike Winiberg

Hmmm, tricky. Give me a few hours and I'll get back to you on that one... 8)

Brady Kelly

Well, stating the obvious, it's quite likely that, either the coder didn't want to rely on code never being inserted between the initializer and guard, or, more likely, the coder added the initializer later, probably to test the guard. Hey, you never know...

mbb01

There may have been code between the initialiser and the if statement that has since been removed. It might actually be a better piece of coding than you think. You always have the option of inserting some more code between the two and it might stand a chance of still working. ;)

R Erasmus

So the if statement is redundent... Maybe the dude has got a resentment towards some tester maybe? fileName is obviously a string which is a referenced type. If it wasn't initialized could of contained some garbage and length would of therefor been > 0. However this is not the case... It is initialised and therefor redundent.

"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." << please vote!! >>

R Erasmus

True, I would agree with you... He is testing for null. Having it in there is better than not having it in there.

"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." << please vote!! >>

Hosey

I posted an example like this in the lounge a few months ago... also found ASP code like this...

for each element in Request.form
if request.form("specificElement") <> "" then
someVar = request.form("specificElement")
...
[do some other stuff]
end if
next

It hurts both my eyes and my brain :(

sjelen

We do not see the scope of fileName. Maybe another thread can change it's value :)

Dietmar Kern

then the code would be incorrect even with the test for zero length

sjelen

incorrect - yes, I'm not talking about sync-ing threads. My point was in that case code would not be "Testing the obvious..."

ely_bob

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: .. ...

try
{
retry:
while (filename = EmptyString)
{
if(Len(fileName) == 0)
{
fileName = Left(DBEngine.Workspaces(0).Databases(0).Name, i) & "REF"
}
}
}
catch
{
goto retry;
}
filename = "";

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: .... just trying to see how many people will complain about this.... ;P

I'd blame it on the Brain farts.. But let's be honest, it really is more like a Methane factory between my ears some days then it is anything else...
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"The conversations he was having with himself were becoming ominous."-.. On the radio...