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  4. Why not: // just shoot me!

Why not: // just shoot me!

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Weird and The Wonderful
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  • E Offline
    E Offline
    esaulsberry
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

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

    P P O G A 10 Replies Last reply
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    • E esaulsberry

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

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      P Offline
      Pualee
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      At least there are comments.

      OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • P Pualee

        At least there are comments.

        OriginalGriffO Offline
        OriginalGriffO Offline
        OriginalGriff
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        I can think of a few comments myself...

        The universe is composed of electrons, neutrons, protons and......morons. (ThePhantomUpvoter)

        "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
        "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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        • E esaulsberry

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

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          Pankaj Nikam
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Guess programmer was hungry thats why he "ate" the exception :D

          Always Keep Smiling. Yours Pankaj Nikam

          1 Reply Last reply
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          • E esaulsberry

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

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            Oshtri Deka
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Relax. This is just sweeping under the rug. It could be worse.

            Mislim, dakle jeo sam.

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            • E esaulsberry

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

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              Gary Wheeler
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              I'm impressed they wasted the energy on a surplus semicolon.

              Software Zen: delete this;

              E E 2 Replies Last reply
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              • G Gary Wheeler

                I'm impressed they wasted the energy on a surplus semicolon.

                Software Zen: delete this;

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                englebart
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                They might have a style rule that enforces: "catch block cannot be empty" Warning: Empty catch block. ftfy: ";"

                G 1 Reply Last reply
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                • E englebart

                  They might have a style rule that enforces: "catch block cannot be empty" Warning: Empty catch block. ftfy: ";"

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                  G Offline
                  Gary Wheeler
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  ... which just demonstrates how misleading style enforcement can be.

                  Software Zen: delete this;

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • G Gary Wheeler

                    I'm impressed they wasted the energy on a surplus semicolon.

                    Software Zen: delete this;

                    E Offline
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                    esaulsberry
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    :-D What kills me is the comment. It would have taken the same effort to say Logger.Log(ex);

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                    • E esaulsberry

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

                      A Offline
                      A Offline
                      agolddog
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      I'm trying (in vain so far) to think up any scenario where the context around this might make this o.k. For example, something like:

                      int pageIndex = 0;
                      try {
                      pageIndex = int.TryParse(Request[pageNum])
                      } catch (Exception e) {
                      Logger.info("Page Index of " + Request[pageNum] + " invalid, using " + pageIndex.ToString());
                      }

                      (Of course, I'd use Int.TryParse instead and null-check the request variable) But, you get the idea--some scenario where you can continue to operate with default data given an unexpected condition. I can't think of any situation where the missing context makes it o.k. to swallow an exception trying whatever a Save operation does.

                      E S 2 Replies Last reply
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                      • A agolddog

                        I'm trying (in vain so far) to think up any scenario where the context around this might make this o.k. For example, something like:

                        int pageIndex = 0;
                        try {
                        pageIndex = int.TryParse(Request[pageNum])
                        } catch (Exception e) {
                        Logger.info("Page Index of " + Request[pageNum] + " invalid, using " + pageIndex.ToString());
                        }

                        (Of course, I'd use Int.TryParse instead and null-check the request variable) But, you get the idea--some scenario where you can continue to operate with default data given an unexpected condition. I can't think of any situation where the missing context makes it o.k. to swallow an exception trying whatever a Save operation does.

                        E Offline
                        E Offline
                        esaulsberry
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        In this case it's just plain sloppy, lazy, and wrong. It should log and throw, allowing the error to propagate to the global error handler. The object's been validated so if the save fails it's a critical failure somewhere in the system, like the database is down. Eating the error when a save fails is never the right thing to do. The user blissfully goes about their business because the save "worked" but it didn't. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

                        1 Reply Last reply
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                        • E esaulsberry

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

                          S Offline
                          S Offline
                          StatementTerminator
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          Looks to me like the original programmer was too lazy to handle an exception, and another programmer came along and added the helpful "Not good!" comment, and left it like that. I don't know which programmer to hate more. Five bucks says that account.Save() has a return value indicating success.

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                          • A agolddog

                            I'm trying (in vain so far) to think up any scenario where the context around this might make this o.k. For example, something like:

                            int pageIndex = 0;
                            try {
                            pageIndex = int.TryParse(Request[pageNum])
                            } catch (Exception e) {
                            Logger.info("Page Index of " + Request[pageNum] + " invalid, using " + pageIndex.ToString());
                            }

                            (Of course, I'd use Int.TryParse instead and null-check the request variable) But, you get the idea--some scenario where you can continue to operate with default data given an unexpected condition. I can't think of any situation where the missing context makes it o.k. to swallow an exception trying whatever a Save operation does.

                            S Offline
                            S Offline
                            StatementTerminator
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            I can think of situations where it might be appropriate to do something like that. For instance, suppose you are implementing a "like" button or something similar. It's not critical that it works and let's assume that it's unreliable for reasons beyond the programmer's control, like maybe it depends on an external service which is not always available. So in that case maybe it's OK to swallow the exception since it's not unusual and nothing will really break if it fails, so you just silently fail and the user can try again if they want. There aren't many situations like this in programming though, and you still should probably log the exceptions. I'm pretty sure that something like account.Save() is a bit too important to treat this way, though.

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                            • E esaulsberry

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

                              R Offline
                              R Offline
                              RafagaX
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Well if saving doesn't work now, it could work later... ;P

                              CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...

                              K 1 Reply Last reply
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                              • E esaulsberry

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

                                S Offline
                                S Offline
                                sparkytheone
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                If in the account class the Save method looked like this there might be a scenario where the eating of exceptions is fine: try { // Some code to save the record to the db .... } catch(Exception ex) { logger.Log(ex); throw; }

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                                • R RafagaX

                                  Well if saving doesn't work now, it could work later... ;P

                                  CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...

                                  K Offline
                                  K Offline
                                  KP Lee
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  RafagaX wrote:

                                  Well if saving doesn't work now, it could work later...

                                  Oh, yea! Really user friendly. I ask to save, it works fine. Except I don't know if it worked or not. So now I've got to retrieve the data. If it is retrieved, fine, it worked. If not, then I get to save again and then check again and...

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • E esaulsberry

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

                                    P Offline
                                    P Offline
                                    Pablo Aliskevicius
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    I've read somewhere that this code is equivalent to:

                                    try
                                    {
                                    // account.Save(); // If this can fail silently, then why bother?
                                    }
                                    catch { ; } //Not good!

                                    Then again, a LART would be more educational. ;)

                                    Pablo. "Accident: An inevitable occurrence due to the action of immutable natural laws." (Ambrose Bierce, circa 1899).

                                    E 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • P Pablo Aliskevicius

                                      I've read somewhere that this code is equivalent to:

                                      try
                                      {
                                      // account.Save(); // If this can fail silently, then why bother?
                                      }
                                      catch { ; } //Not good!

                                      Then again, a LART would be more educational. ;)

                                      Pablo. "Accident: An inevitable occurrence due to the action of immutable natural laws." (Ambrose Bierce, circa 1899).

                                      E Offline
                                      E Offline
                                      esaulsberry
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      A fantastic point.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • S StatementTerminator

                                        I can think of situations where it might be appropriate to do something like that. For instance, suppose you are implementing a "like" button or something similar. It's not critical that it works and let's assume that it's unreliable for reasons beyond the programmer's control, like maybe it depends on an external service which is not always available. So in that case maybe it's OK to swallow the exception since it's not unusual and nothing will really break if it fails, so you just silently fail and the user can try again if they want. There aren't many situations like this in programming though, and you still should probably log the exceptions. I'm pretty sure that something like account.Save() is a bit too important to treat this way, though.

                                        L Offline
                                        L Offline
                                        Lutoslaw
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        StatementTerminator wrote:

                                        implementing a "like" button or something similar. It's not critical that it works

                                        Man, people split up because of a 'like' button. You don't 'like' in time -- you loose. It IS crtical. :rolleyes:

                                        Greetings - Jacek

                                        S 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • L Lutoslaw

                                          StatementTerminator wrote:

                                          implementing a "like" button or something similar. It's not critical that it works

                                          Man, people split up because of a 'like' button. You don't 'like' in time -- you loose. It IS crtical. :rolleyes:

                                          Greetings - Jacek

                                          S Offline
                                          S Offline
                                          StatementTerminator
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          That's OK, people who care about "like" buttons should be ostracized anyway. On a side note, if I hear someone at my organization say one more time that our site needs to be more like Facebook, I'm going to garrote myself with a Cat5 cable.

                                          L 1 Reply Last reply
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