Comment On Weird Stripping

The way I see it from looking over it briefly is that he's just removing all apostrophes?

So the obvious thing would be MyFunction = Replace(inText,"'","")... But ofcourse, you could opt to KEEP the apostophes. Gues he never found this out: MyFunction = Replace(inText,"'","''")

If this guy morron was in my "team", I would've kicked his ass to the kerb. Buh bye !

bweeeerhg [:|]

HEY! Why can't I edit my message? [:@]

Anyways... I wanted to add that you gotta love his one and only comment. And to say that I never understand why these guys morons never think to themselves: there should be an easier way to do this. And if there's not (or you did actually miss it by accident and didn't know about the Replace function) why these people morons never get the idea to write their own "Replace" function. Nah, we'll keep re-inventing the wheel each time we need some code to replace a character or string.

>>> 'sql server freaks out on this character: ' <<<

And my word processor completely freaks out over both the CR and LF characters!  Starts moving the cursor over to the left side of the screen !!

Of a new line!!!

Damn lousy word processor...

RobIII:

HEY! Why can't I edit my message? [:@]

If this was originally written in VB5, there was no replace function.

I do like the way he loops twice though, and the left 16000 is a nice touch.

From TFA
'sql server freaks out on this character: '

Ok,  maybe if you're doing ad hoc queries or Dynamic SQL ("INSERT INTO .." .. But SQL Server doesn't choke on the ' character if part of a stored procedure, doesn't it?!

Stored Procs, in general, are better than dynamic SQL, in my experience.

I think the way he/she makes extra double sure there aren't any ' chars is really just good, good, sound, sound, careful, careful programming. Hey, if the code missed one, then it can miss it again! Sure beats writting an error handler! My only worry is when the InTxt value is 16001 char or more - wouldn't it be better to write:

Private Function StripWeird(InTxt As String) As String
  Dim pos As Integer

  if LEN(inTxt)<= 16000 THEN     
    InTxt = Trim(Left(InTxt, 16000))
  Else
    if LEN(inTxt)<= 16000 THEN     
      InTxt = Trim(Left(InTxt, 16000))
    Else    
      inTxt = TRIM(InTxt)
    end if
    inTxt = TRIM(InTxt)
  End if
 
  'sql server freaks out on this character: '
  pos = InStr(1, InTxt, "'")
  Do While pos > 0
    InTxt = Left(InTxt, pos - 1) & Mid(InTxt, pos + 1)
    If pos > 1 Then
      pos = InStr(pos - 1, InTxt, "'")
    Else
      pos = InStr(1, InTxt, "'")
    End If
  Loop
 
  pos = InStr(1, InTxt, "'")
  Do While pos > 0
    InTxt = Left(InTxt, pos - 1) & Mid(InTxt, pos + 1)
    If pos > 1 Then
      pos = InStr(pos - 1, InTxt, "'")
    Else
      pos = InStr(1, InTxt, "'")
    End If
  Loop

  StripWeird = InTxt
End Function

mizhi:

This WTF has rendered dubwai unable to form coherent sentences.  Is this a first? [:)]

WTF is the second loop for?  That doesn't do anything, does it?

dubwai:

mizhi:

This WTF has rendered dubwai unable to form coherent sentences.  Is this a first? [:)]

WTF is the second loop for?  That doesn't do anything, does it?

dubwai:

mizhi:

This WTF has rendered dubwai unable to form coherent sentences.  Is this a first? [:)]

WTF is the second loop for?  That doesn't do anything, does it?

Some people said I was crazy to build a loop that removed all apostrophes from a string.  But I did it anyway.  And that loop missed some apostrophes.

So I ran the loop again.  That loop missed some apostrophes too.

So I ran the loop a third time.  That loop missed some apostrophes too.

So I ran the loop a FOURTH time.  And that one caught all the apostrophes!  And today that's what you're getting, son.

A thousand apologies to Monty Python.

No excuse at all. Even for dynamically generated SQL, you should be using parameter placeholders, and then setting the values in Parameter objects for the Command. It's easy, and completely avoids both injection attacks as well as any need to mangle your apostrophes.

Anyone on my team who doesn't do it this way is going to get a good talking-to [:@]

Anonymous:

VB isn't great, but it is fantastic for rapid application
development.  It comes in handy for small little projects and was
a godsend before Java came mainstream.  Develop a small GUI App in
VC then do the same one in VB and see how long they both take
you.  Dollars to doughnuts says VB kicks the ever living crap out
of the VC time.  In the end, larger projects needing closer
interfacing to hardware should be done in VC.  The problem is, 90%
of projects out there start small, then through maintenance and
evolution become projects that should have been spec'd completely and
prolly done in Java or maybe, just maybe VC if you have someone who
knows what they are doing.

Anonymous:

VB isn't great, but it is fantastic for rapid application development.  It comes in handy for small little projects and was a godsend before Java came mainstream.  Develop a small GUI App in VC then do the same one in VB and see how long they both take you.  Dollars to doughnuts says VB kicks the ever living crap out of the VC time.  In the end, larger projects needing closer interfacing to hardware should be done in VC.  The problem is, 90% of projects out there start small, then through maintenance and evolution become projects that should have been spec'd completely and prolly done in Java or maybe, just maybe VC if you have someone who knows what they are doing.

I'm would bet the development time for a fat client VB is gong to kick the crap out of Java too.  The problem tends to be that the app is quick in the first dev cycle but each progressive cycle takes longer and longer.  Eventually it takes longer to make a few enhancements than it did to write the app in the first place.  It's no the language mind you, it's that the skill level required to code in VB is a lot lower than most languages so you tend to get less skilled developers.  Another way to put it is that VB makes it easy to do a lot of things that experienced programmers know not to do.

bugsRus:

Couldn't

    If pos > 1 Then
      pos = InStr(pos - 1, InTxt, "'")
    Else
      pos = InStr(1, InTxt, "'")
    End If

Be...

      pos = InStr(InTxt, "'")

When you re-invent the wheel, be sure to make it round.

Anonymous:

Real programmer ( and consultants :-) )
knows that you work in languages like C, C++, Java, C# or
what ever but never in VB

Private Function StripWeird(InTxt As String) As String
 .....

  InTxt = Left(InTxt, pos - 1) & Mid(InTxt, pos + 1)
...

  StripWeird = InTxt
End Function

For my money, one of the best bits is the way he's passing the input in by reference (the default before VB.Net) then using it as his temporary variable, modifying it and passing it back out. 

Beautiful.  Even if he didn't return the results, anyone calling this so-called function will find the contents of their argument variable have been modified.

RobIII:

HEY! Why can't I edit my message? [:@]

Anyways... I wanted to add that you gotta love his one and only comment. And to say that I never understand why these guys
morons never think to themselves: there should be an easier way to do
this. And if there's not (or you did actually miss it by accident and
didn't know about the Replace function) why these people morons never get the idea to write their own "Replace" function. Nah, we'll keep re-inventing the wheel each time we need some code to replace a character or string.

Yup, I agree - there's plenty of scope for similar/worse approaches in ANY language...having said that, this WTF is a corker.

Anonymous:

Were I feeling charitable, I'd guess that mentioning "replace" as the right way to do what the coder originally intended (even if he didn't realise he intended it) - twice - was an ironic commentary on the double construct in the original code.

However, I'm not feeling charitable, and I am forced to conclude that you must be one of those "morrons" we hear so much about.

I was commenting on the code as it was posted, not what he should have done (Stored Procedures, Parametrized Query's). Everyone knows he should have used XML with some XSLT and some Javascript and preferably throw in some other languages too. [:D]

OMG:

I think the way he/she makes extra double sure
there aren't any ' chars is really just good, good, sound,
sound, careful, careful programming. Hey, if the code missed
one, then it can miss it again! Sure beats writting an error handler!
My only worry is when the InTxt value is 16001 char or more - wouldn't
it be better to write:

dubwai:

VB makes it easy to do a lot of things that experienced programmers know not to do.

Spidey:

Anonymous:

Real programmer ( and consultants :-) )
knows that you work in languages like C, C++, Java, C# or
what ever but never in VB

Oh, do us a favour. "Real programmers" know that you use the best tool for the job.



It's is so dull when this board turns into a VB vs
TheRestOfTheProgrammingLanguagesInTheWorld discussion by snobby
programmers who like to look down on VB because it is fast, easy and
popular, and somehow undermines their own sense of self importance in
being a guru programmer in a 'difficult' language.

RobIII:

I was commenting on the code as it was posted, not what he should have done (Stored Procedures, Parametrized Query's). Everyone knows he should have used XML with some XSLT and some Javascript and preferably throw in some other languages too. [:D]

...
<if condition="pos &gt; 1">
 <assign var="pos">
  <replace what="'" with="">
   <value of="pos" />
  </replace>
 </assign>
</if>
...

then convert it javascript [Y]

Schol-R-LEA:

Feh. I apparently dropped the end of that first paragraph somehow. It should have read:



"Since the language is proprietary and subject to arbitrary
change, programmers using it cannot be certain if the code they write today will work on the next version of the language - something
which is also true of Java, admittedly, but the Java developers tend to
make fewer radical changes, and phase out old constructs rather than
simply axing them or rearranging them. The fact that the language is
not fully documented (AFAIK), and no standards body exists for it, makes some aspects of development a matter of guesswork.

bugsRus:

Couldn't

    If pos > 1 Then
      pos = InStr(pos - 1, InTxt, "'")
    Else
      pos = InStr(1, InTxt, "'")
    End If

Be...

      pos = InStr(InTxt, "'")

When you re-invent the wheel, be sure to make it round.

    InTxt = Left(InTxt, pos - 1) & Mid(InTxt, pos + 1)

Anonymous:

Were I feeling charitable, I'd guess that mentioning "replace" as the
right way to do what the coder originally intended (even if he didn't
realise he intended it) - twice - was an ironic commentary on the
double construct in the original code.



However, I'm not feeling charitable, and I am forced to conclude that you must be one of those "morrons" we hear so much about.