"I spent almost a year of my life working with The Phantom Duo," writes David B via the Submit to TDWTF Extension, "while their tenure resulted in a lot of headaches, a few lost jobs, and a multi-million dollar explosion, there was one positive result: lots and lots of bad code."

"At least, that's a good thing for me, since I haven't worked with the code in years: it's like I have my own, personal The Daily WTF archive on a flash drive. This particular method seemed worth sharing - I even added a few comments to help understand it."


/// <summary>
/// Called by MatchWord
/// </summary>
private bool ChangeWord(ref string str, bool checkCase, bool checkWholeWord, string strFind, string strReplace)
{
    // declare a local that will be returned; it's prefered to use only one "return" statement, at the end
    bool changed = false;

    // create copies of some of the parameters; you can never have too many copies
    string lStr;
    string lStrFind;

    // some people use caseSensitive or caseInsensitive... this is more clear
    if (checkCase)
    {
        lStr = str;
        lStrFind = strFind;
    }
    else
    {
        // case-insensitive change, convert to UPPERCASE, forget existence of other cultures
        lStr = str.ToUpper();
        lStrFind = strFind.ToUpper();
    }

    // by check whole word, I mean check entire string
    if (checkWholeWord)
    {
        if (lStr == lStrFind)
        {
            str = strReplace;
            changed = true;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        // reinvent the wheel
        int start = 0;
        int index = 0;

        while (start < lStr.Length && index >= 0)
        {
            index = lStr.IndexOf(lStrFind, start);
            if (index >= 0)
            {
                str = str.Remove(index, strFind.Length);
                str = str.Insert(index, strReplace);
                changed = true; // unless strReplace == strFind
                if (checkCase)
                    lStr = str;
                else
                    lStr = str.ToUpper();
                start = index + strReplace.Length;
            }
        }
    }

    return changed;
}
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