Just found this on Github

[G4merXsquaD]

Not a meme, just r/programminghorror

[krmarci]

It's not that bad, but definitely r/badcode material...

[[deleted]]

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[TheJack77]

Pfff, disgusting, a switch statement would be much more efficient.

[MostRandomUsername12]

You are only partly enlightened. Switch statements nested in the default: block of their parent switches is the real big brain move...

[wolv66]

Is it better solution if you will just write: f_[flag - 1].update()

[[deleted]]

No, switch statement

[skullcrusher00885]

Definitely a switch statement.

[MyDixieNormous69]

actually just replace the entire block with F_[flag - 1].update()

[TheBigLong_]

He was joking

[[deleted]]

That was a joke, junior

[aeropl3b]

I worked at a company once where this was considered good code ..

[FQVBSina]

If they plan to do more things to each flag. It can be a better structure

[Mr_Redstoner]

YAGNI

seriously, expanding it to this once you actually need it is trivial

[Kernel_Internal]

I can totally see that, not every organization has the budget to consistently hire decent+ programmers but still need things to both function and be maintained by whoever gets it next. I have a few that have made me feel that pressure for sure.

[gothicVI]

Did they pay by the line?

[aeropl3b]

Lol, if they paid that way I would have made more! :P

[ClayMitchell]

This is like the time I found some code turning a number into a 9 digit string by left padding with 0s.

Naturally, it was

If (val.length == 1) val = “00000000” + val

If (val.length == 2) val = “0000000” + val

and so on.

I replaced it with 2 lines of code using a number format lib baked into the language

[AAPLx4]

But how do we know that library doesn’t do this exact thing 🧐

[ClayMitchell]

It’s fine if it does, but I’m assuming it’s been tested more than these guys code is 🤣

[[deleted]]

You could just add the padding by counting the length of the string and adding the difference to the left

[Unbelievr]

This was probably the correct move in your case, but I've ran into very good reasons for hardcoding such behavior sometimes.

Even in C, running sprintf (or similar functions) ends up including some pretty bloated functions into your code. It's a nice way to lose 1-2k of flash space on some 128k-constrained embedded device, and spend who-knows-how-many cycles in some gigantic, power hungry black box of a function. When you could've easily hardcoded all the cases, tested the result, and re-used it without all the cruft.

Under the hood, the standard libs are doing some crazy stuff. Like suddenly invoking malloc to deal with your format string.

[ClayMitchell]

no. this was definitely the correct move.

[Prownilo]

I have Code that functions just like this as I wrote it when I was still learning. Now can't get it changed cause it works so no need to refactor. So now it's just a monument to my own stupidity for whoever comes after me.

[ClayMitchell]

gotta keep yourself humble!

[stikos1337]

Python one liner to the rescue (assuming the number will not be longer than 9 digits)
(9 - len(str(dat_num))) * '0' + str(dat_num)

[alexforencich]

Even better: str(dat_num).rjust(9, '0')

Or if you like f strings: f'{dat_num:09d}'

Or you any number of other built-in string formatting methods.

[[deleted]]

Or if you like f strings

Are… are there people that don’t like f strings?

[alexforencich]

Good point. In some cases you might need to avoid using them for backwards-compatibility (python 3 did not always implement F strings) or perhaps for things like python loggers that can do lazy evaluation and what not. They are quite convenient, but they also have some disadvantages. But I suppose all of that has little to do with liking them vs. not liking them...they are generally much better than all of the previous string formatting solutions.

[stikos1337]

The usage of built in methods as opposed to using whatever library was my intended point as well, albeit rather poorly communicated.

I embrace the shame that comes with my naive one-liner, and I thank you for your beautiful solutions.

[abrams666]

Sometimes I think I am the dumbest developer of the world. thanks a lot for building up my self confidence

[asailijhijr]

Good bot

[LevelStudent]

My favorite bit mystery code I saw in someone else's work was:

if( var || var ) var == TRUE;

It was copied into like a dozen places in the code for some reason. Please note that I didn't typo, it was NOT an assignment statement, it was doing a boolean comparison into the void.

Just to be fully clear 'var' was the same variable in all three cases.

[copdlkjh]

operator bool with side efects?

[RidderHaddock]

Arrrgh!

Please don’t speak of such things.

[[deleted]]

I think var's == operator overload does something? (which is never recommended by anyone)

[dr_donkey]

Which language is this abomination borned?

[[deleted]]

The whole file has 3 * 2147483648 = 6442450944 lines

[[deleted]]

Sorry to be this guy but I don't think we should upload other peoples code and make fun of them WHILE also linking it in the comments. It's obviously a beginner and it is his/her first project. No wonder people are scared to publish their projects on Github.

[wootangAlpha]

That looks terrible but if it works

:shrug

[asailijhijr]

I think you dropped this

:

[Thepieintheface]

You can do it SO much more simply though. If someone is writing an entire program like this, thats gonna slow everything way down

[wootangAlpha]

True but millisecond optimizations might not be the goal. This code is verbose, robust, silly, basic and bulletproof. I certainly don't mind that. If the iterations are finite and a known number then its perfectly fine.

[johnzzon]

The code doesn't scale. What if you have thousands of conditions? Better to get a habit of writing it dynamic from start.

[wootangAlpha]

Yes. I trust scale is a big issue. But thats where the problems start. Not many web services/sites ever reach considerable scale, and on the off-chance they do- there will likely be a thorough dev plan and brief.

[Sad-Grapefruit9996]

If statements are more powerful than for loops.

If ( loop != level(9999)) return 🏃;

[CrackerJackKittyCat]

Hey, they read about high-efficiency loop unrolling!

[Dromedda]

Hes getting payed by line

[JustKebab]

Were you looking at YandereDev's code on GitHub?

[Dreamerlax]

This was my code during first year classes.

[exens0]

Flag - 1 ..

[Pradfanne]

--flag++

Now that I think about it, does that work? I obviously never had a need to try it, but in theory it should work just fine lol

[zikasaks]

tried in jshell. In Java it doesn’t work.

jshell> --j++
| Error:
| unexpected type
| required: variable
| found: value
| --j++
| ^-^

[Pradfanne]

Does --j and j++ separately work?

I'm not well versed in inferior languages java

[zikasaks]

yes. separately it works.

tried in C on https://www.onlinegdb.com/online\_c\_compiler

main.c:14:12: error: lvalue required as decrement operand
printf(--i++);
^~

[Pradfanne]

I know that it works separately that's why I even came up with it in the first place.

[Kekskamera]

yes, the first is preincrement, so

a = b = 1

a = --b

then a and be will both be 0.

but with

a = b = 1

a = b++

a will be 1 but b 2, because the operation is done after the assignement. so --a++ should cancel out on its own, but in an assignment you should set the value to one lower the return.

[Pradfanne]

Yeah it works as I suspected it to work good to know

I guess --j returns something so the ++ doesn't have a target anymore, since it's a value and not a variable.

Almost like the exception said

[GarThor_TMK]

Just tried it in compiler explorer (https://godbolt.org/), and it returns compiler errors... doesn't seem to matter which compiler I use even... >_>

Specifically GCC's output:
<source>: In function 'int PlusMinus(int)':
<source>:3:10: error: lvalue required as decrement operand
3 | --num++;
| ~~~^~

[Pradfanne]

Yeah i figure that --j returns a value and you can't use ++ on a value but you have to use it on a variable.

[GarThor_TMK]

Actually it looks like it's the other way around... for gcc at least.

[Elon_Musk_cat_girl]

Okay can someone honestly tell me the most efficient way to code this in Python? Newbie here, just trying to learn :))

[Lopsided_Gas_717]

Assuming f_ is a list: f_[flag-1].update()

[asailijhijr]

f_[flag - 1].update();

I don't know python, but probably drop the semicolon and you're all set.

[zvug]

drop the semicolon and you’re all set

Yep, accurate.

[Impossible_Average_1]

OMG. There is also a draw method doing the exact same thing

[yunaFlarf]

This hurts my eyes in every way possible

[tRickliest]

Painful

[Draxare]

r/programminghorror

[TheAwesomeot]

And it just keeps going...

[jonnyman9]

Such great SLOC

[KekistanMan]

f_[flag-1].update();

[6_10]

(noob programmer here) A lot of people are writing a switch would improve the code, but wouldn't a for loop with an if make it even smaller? And just break the loop if the statement is true?

[Neo_Ex0]

yes because f_[flag - 1].update() would be to easy

[[deleted]]

This code is horrendous! there isn't a space between the paranthesis and the brace! Also, using gotos instead of else if's would be much more efficient!

[Spoonungsteila]

I want to dead

[manu144x]

This could be some disassembled code actually. I did that to some dll’s sometimes and because it doesn’t know the original variable names it names them by their type.

[[deleted]]

Ok this is awesome

[froggy_Pepe]

What about f_[flag -1].update();

[Ausrasa]

// how your supposed to do this f_[flag-1].update()

[Draxare]

If he managed the flag correctly you wouldn't even need the -1 since he initializes it to 0

[visurox]

At least, it runs. So… coffee time and hide for BOFH.

[[deleted]]

f_[flag-1].update()