Can you spot the error in the following Delphi code? It is a function that returns a value.
function GetAmount(Value : Integer) : Integer;
var
ModBalance, ExtraYield : Integer;
begin
Result := GetInitialValue(Value);
if Result = 0 then;
begin
for I := 1 to 12 do
Inc(Result, GetMonthly(I);
Inc(Result, ExtraAmount(I));
end;
end;
OK, not too hard, was it?
Solution: The if-condition is short-circuited because of the trailing ";" after "then". The code in the following block will always be called. The resulting value from the function will just be wrong.
Not so hard to spot! But imagine finding this problem among thousands of lines of code spread over hundreds of units! And consider also a code base that is evolving all the time, so the code must constantly be rechecked.
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