This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Mike Shoemaker. Original Post: Can you say WTF? Feed Title: Unruly Rambling (java category) Feed URL: http://www.shoesobjects.com/blog/feed.xml?flavor=rss20&category=java Feed Description: My thoughts on software, technology, and life in general Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Mike Shoemaker Latest Posts From Unruly Rambling (java category)

The following post was inspired by the following site: The Daily WTF

During a quick review of some legacy code today, I stumbled upon this gem of a method. I can't believe how many different ways this design, or lack thereof, gets under my skin. All comments were sprinkled in for demonstration purposes only. All javadoc that existed(none) is not shown to protect the guilty.

   1:// by the method name, would you expect the return value to be a boolean?
   2:// Also, way to pass in a Date as a string and also the format. Passing 
   3:// in a simple date would have been a bit too convenient
   4:private boolean dateDifference(String fillDate, String format) {
   5:
   6:        boolean result = false; 
   7:        try { 
   8:                Date current = new Date(); 
   9:                SimpleDateFormat sd = new SimpleDateFormat(format); 
  10:                Date filldate = sd.parse(fillDate); 
  11:                if (current.compareTo(filldate) > 0) { 
  12:                        double msdiff = (current.getTime() - filldate.getTime()); 
  13:                        // for those of you that don't know, this value is the meaning of Life, 
  14:                        // the Universe, and Everything.  Or was that 42. I forget.  
  15:                        double msd = 3888000000.00; 
  16:                        if (msdiff <= msd) { 
  17:                                result = true; 
  18:                        } 
  19:                } 
  20:        } catch (ParseException e) { 
  21:            //Excellent Handling of Exceptional cases :)    
  22:            logger.error("ParseException while getting the dateDifference " + e.getMessage());
  23:        }
  24:
  25:        return result; 
  26:}