The Endless Loop
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Was tracking down an error with one of our sprocs and ran into this bit of sql:
while (@keeplooping = 1)
begin
/* help save us from an endless loop */
select @stoplooking=@stoplooking+1
if (@stoplooking > 30)
begin
print 'BREAKING ENDLESS LOOP IN [proc_DoStuff]'
return
end
--do more stuff
end
So straight up looping in sql is frequently a good sign you are doing something wrong. But having a condition where your loop never ends and deciding, "Well, just check if its looped 30 times and then kill it if it has" is just terrible in every way.
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@Peraninth said:
Was tracking down an error with one of our sprocs and ran into this bit of sql:
while (@keeplooping = 1)
begin
/* help save us from an endless loop */
select @stoplooking=@stoplooking+1
if (@stoplooking > 30)
begin
print 'BREAKING ENDLESS LOOP IN [proc_DoStuff]'
return
end
--do more stuff
end
So straight up looping in sql is frequently a good sign you are doing something wrong. But having a condition where your loop never ends and deciding, "Well, just check if its looped 30 times and then kill it if it has" is just terrible in every way.I wonder where the number 30 comes from. Is it some clever reference to the
-30-
in journalism, is it some random number, or is there more to it?That's like opening a php.ini file and seeing that the maximum upload size has been set to 22MB, or opening a SSIS package and seeing that the MaximumErrorCount is set to 175. Reflecting on the meaning of those numbers is almost a zen experience.
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@Ronald said:
or opening a SSIS package and seeing that the MaximumErrorCount is set to 175.
SpectateSwamp Information Search would never have a maximum of 175 errors! On Error Resume Next all the way, baby!
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@Ronald said:
@Peraninth said:
Choosing the right size for a varchar column always feels kind of dicey. Nvarchar(20) or nvarchar(100) for a name? Fuck it, nvarchar(max) so they can have gigabytes of characters. It's arbitrary anyway.Was tracking down an error with one of our sprocs and ran into this bit of sql:
while (@keeplooping = 1)
begin
/* help save us from an endless loop */
select @stoplooking=@stoplooking+1
if (@stoplooking > 30)
begin
print 'BREAKING ENDLESS LOOP IN [proc_DoStuff]'
return
end
--do more stuff
end
So straight up looping in sql is frequently a good sign you are doing something wrong. But having a condition where your loop never ends and deciding, "Well, just check if its looped 30 times and then kill it if it has" is just terrible in every way.I wonder where the number 30 comes from. Is it some clever reference to the
-30-
in journalism, is it some random number, or is there more to it?That's like opening a php.ini file and seeing that the maximum upload size has been set to 22MB, or opening a SSIS package and seeing that the MaximumErrorCount is set to 175. Reflecting on the meaning of those numbers is almost a zen experience.
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Filed under: Who needs any other datatype?
You might laugh, but some people take this seriously. Sure, it might be a beginners' language not designed with performance in mind, but arrays as strings... fuck.
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@Peraninth said:
But having a condition where your loop never ends and deciding, "Well, just check if its looped 30 times and then kill it if it has" is just terrible in every way.
I recall doing something like this once. I was supposed to trace the edges of an object in an image, and the algorithm will sometimes throw himself into an infinite loop if the picture wasn't quite right (probably a bug in my implementation, but i don't know even today). So if it went through a ton of pixels and still hasn't finished, it just gave up and tried again with a different filter to the image.
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I like writing endless loops as
for (; ;) {...}
because the crying smiley reminds me it's wrong, so I only do it when I really have to
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@Maciejasjmj said:
Filed under: Who needs any other datatype?
You might laugh, but some people take this seriously. Sure, it might be a beginners' language not designed with performance in mind, but arrays as strings... fuck.
TCL takes this even further: in this piece of code:
if $foo { puts "Hello!" }
The if is actually a command that gets called with one argument: "$foo { puts "Hello!" }"; it then splits that into two pieces, and executes the second if appropriate. Why yes, executing strings is of course a fundamental part of the language :)
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@jpa said:
@Maciejasjmj said:
Filed under: Who needs any other datatype?
You might laugh, but some people take this seriously. Sure, it might be a beginners' language not designed with performance in mind, but arrays as strings... fuck.
TCL takes this even further: in this piece of code:
if $foo { puts "Hello!" }
The if is actually a command that gets called with one argument: "$foo { puts "Hello!" }"; it then splits that into two pieces, and executes the second if appropriate. Why yes, executing strings is of course a fundamental part of the language :)
Now, you're being unfair and incorrect. Actually, if is called with two arguments - the value of the variable foo and the string “puts "Hello!"”. It's really very .. er.. I forget the word - if is basically a C macro that operates on plain strings and can be recursive! I think it's called atrocious? Or maybe urghlic. I think I've seen people call the way while works AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
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@Mo6eB said:
I like writing endless loops as
for (; ;) {...}
because the crying smiley reminds me it's wrong, so I only do it when I really have to
That is the first argument for infinite for-loops that I've actually liked. Usually infinite for-loops make me want to punch kittens.
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@mikeTheLiar said:
@Mo6eB said:
I like writing endless loops as
for (; ;) {...}
because the crying smiley reminds me it's wrong, so I only do it when I really have to
That is the first argument for infinite for-loops that I've actually liked. Usually infinite for-loops make me want to punch kittens.I have to disagree. The "crying smiley" looks more like an elephant to me. I think elephants are pretty cool, so this sends the wrong message. You should write your infinite loops the way God intended:
_10: puts("Hello, World"); goto _10;
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@boomzilla said:
@mikeTheLiar said:
@Mo6eB said:
That is the first argument for infinite for-loops that I've actually liked. Usually infinite for-loops make me want to punch kittens.I like writing endless loops as
for (; ;) {...}
because the crying smiley reminds me it's wrong, so I only do it when I really have to
I have to disagree. The "crying smiley" looks more like an elephant to me. I think elephants are pretty cool, so this sends the wrong message. You should write your infinite loops the way God intended:
_10: puts("Hello, World"); goto _10;
But then I can't use local scoping for variables! Like so:
for (Iterator<Map.Entry<String, List<String>>> i = myMap.entrySet().iterator(); ;) { ... stuff ... }
Also, how do you break out of the loop early? You'll need another label. And it doesn't work in Java.
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@boomzilla said:
The "crying smiley" looks more like an elephant to me.
I get the ears and tusks and all, but where's the trunk?
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@Mo6eB said:
Apropos of nothing - I'm sure, as presented, that won't work (or compile) as intended....for (Iterator<Map.Entry<String, List<String>>> i = myMap.entrySet().iterator(); ;) {
... stuff ...
}
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@dhromed said:
@boomzilla said:
The "crying smiley" looks more like an elephant to me.
I get the ears and tusks and all, but where's the trunk?It's implied by the negative space between the two semicolons.
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@boomzilla said:
@dhromed said:
@boomzilla said:
The "crying smiley" looks more like an elephant to me.
I get the ears and tusks and all, but where's the trunk?It's implied by the negative space between the two semicolons.
I am deeply offended by the negative space below your post.
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@PJH said:
@Mo6eB said:
Apropos of nothing - I'm sure, as presented, that won't work (or compile) as intended....for (Iterator<Map.Entry<String, List<String>>> i = myMap.entrySet().iterator(); ;) { ... stuff ... }
You do need a liiiitle bit of boilerplate around it, sure:
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Map.Entry;
import java.util.Random;
public class Scratch {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Map<String, List<String>> myMap = new HashMap<>();
myMap.put("an key", Arrays.asList("one", "two", "three"));
myMap.put("look i am a string", Arrays.asList("ichi", "ni", "san"));
myMap.put(" ", Arrays.asList("this key intentionally left blank".split(" ")));
myMap.put("not null", Arrays.<String>asList(null, null, null, null, null, null));
Random rand = new Random();
for (Iterator<Map.Entry<String, List<String>>> i = myMap.entrySet().iterator(); ;) {
if (rand.nextFloat() < 0.1) {
System.out.println("Random exit!");
break;
}
if (!i.hasNext()) {
System.out.println("No more next!");
break;
}
Entry<String, List<String>> next = i.next();
System.out.println("``" + next.getKey() + "'' = " + next.getValue());
}
}
}
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@Mo6eB said:
import java.util.Arrays;
Ah - my error - I mistook it for C++...
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@Ronald said:
I wonder where the number 30 comes from. Is it some clever reference to the
-30-
in journalism
What's -30- in journalism?
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@veggen said:
@Ronald said:
Back in the day stories were hand-written on pieces of paper, "I wonder where the number 30 comes from. Is it some clever reference to the
What's -30- in journalism?-30-
in journalism-30-
" indicated the end of the story. Why "-30-
"? I don't know.
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@HardwareGeek said:
@veggen said:
@Ronald said:
Back in the day stories were hand-written on pieces of paper, "I wonder where the number 30 comes from. Is it some clever reference to the
-30-
in journalism
What's -30- in journalism?-30-
" indicated the end of the story. Why "-30-
"? I don't know.Wikipedia mentions two interpretations but the one I've heard most often is that back in the days where people were submitting hand-written documents they were using "X" to indicate stops (X = end of sentence, XX = end of paragraph, XXX = end of article). So 30 would be a clever translation from the roman numeral XXX.
That's an unfortunate choice. How wonderful would that be if journalists were to finish their article with a pornographic image to replace the XXX. Maybe an ASCII goatse or something more tasteful.
@@@@@ @@. .@@ @@@\=/@@@ @.-- --.@ /(.) (.)\ \ ) . ( / '( v )` \ | / ( | ) '- -`
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@Ronald said:
How wonderful would that be if journalists were to finish their article with a pornographic image to replace the XXX
There you have the explanation of how p0rn came to be referered to as "X Rated".
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@Ronald said:
Wikipedia mentions two interpretations but the one I've heard most often is that back in the days where people were submitting hand-written documents they were using "X" to indicate stops (X = end of sentence, XX = end of paragraph, XXX = end of article). So 30 would be a clever translation from the roman numeral XXX.
Interesting. Back when I worked on the school newspaper in high school, we were simply told to write -30- at the end of our stories; I don't remember being given any explanation. However, as an Amateur Radio operator, the explanation based on the telegraphic code seems to me much more likely (if less, um... creative).
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@Ronald said:
@@@@@
@@. .@@
@@@=/@@@
@.-- --.@
/(.) (.)
\ ) . ( /
'( v )\ | / ( | ) '- -
Not sure about the Cyber(wo)man head ...
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@El_Heffe said:
@Ronald said:
How wonderful would that be if journalists were to finish their article with a pornographic image to replace the XXX
There you have the explanation of how p0rn came to be referered to as "X Rated".
Note to self: 10 year olds can watch porn
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@HardwareGeek said:
Amateur Radio operator
Roger That!
Bonus question: how many pairs of gloves would you wear if you had to touch that arm rest (or that seat belt)?
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@Ronald said:
@HardwareGeek said:
Amateur Radio operator
Roger That!
Bonus question: how many pairs of gloves would you wear if you had to touch that arm rest (or that seat belt)?
I would build a remotely-operated robotic arm. And put 8 pairs of gloves on it. It will also have an embedded flamethrower.