This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by scot mcphee. Original Post: Funny little code snippet (how not to do it) Feed Title: SystemExxception() Feed URL: http://www.autonomous.org/pebble/systemexxception/rss.xml?category=Java Feed Description: java design and culture by scot mcphee Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by scot mcphee Latest Posts From SystemExxception()

Here's some code that was discovered this afternoon in a home-grown validation framework. Read it and weep. Tommorrow I just have to review the CVS log to find out the developer responsible. This sort of code is all through certain sections. I kid you not.

    public Collection validateAttribute(String modelName, Object value, Collection errors)
    {
        // ignore nulls
        if (value != null)
        {
            // ensure it is a string
            if (!(value instanceof String))
            {
                try
                {
                    throw (Throwable) new ValidatorException(
                        getModelName()
                            + "."
                            + getAttributeName()
                            + " - FieldLengthRule validation rule only "
                            + "applies to String attributes");
                }
                catch (Throwable e)
                {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }

            String str = (String) value;

            if (str.length() > getLength())
            {
                errors.add(new MaxFieldLengthError(modelName, this));
            }

        }
 
        return errors;
    }