Re: How to satisfy the code checker in this instance?

From:

Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:05:21 -0800

Message-ID:

<sN6dnbpD__B_77fWnZ2dnUVZ_rydnZ2d@posted.palinacquisition>

laredotornado wrote:

Hi,

I'm using Java 1.5 with a code checker named PMD. It is complaining
about the following method ...

    private static Date parse(final String dateStr, final String
dateFormat) {
        Date date = null;
        try {
            final DateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat,
Locale.getDefault());
            date = sdf.parse(dateStr);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            LOGGER.error("Could not parse time:" + dateStr, e);
        }
        return date;
    } // parse

specifically, complaining about the fact that the variable "Date date
= null" is redefined -- first set to null and then later set to a new
value (Found 'DD' anomaly for variable date). Yes, quite a bizarre
warning, but do you know how to rewrite the above to preserve the
functionality while not redefining the variable?

I'm not convinced it needs fixing. It seems like a common enough idiom
that the checker is what needs fixing. But, here are a couple of
variations that ought to work:

   private static Date parse(
     final String dateStr,
     final String dateFormat)
   {
     Date date;
     try
     {
       final DateFormat sdf =
         new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat, Locale.getDefault());

       date = sdf.parse(dateStr);
     }
     catch (Exception e)
     {
       LOGGER.error("Could not parse time:" + dateStr, e);
       date = null;
     }

     return date;
   } // parse

Or:

   private static Date parse(
     final String dateStr,
     final String dateFormat)
   {
     try
     {
       final DateFormat sdf =
         new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat, Locale.getDefault());

       return sdf.parse(dateStr);
     }
     catch (Exception e)
     {
       LOGGER.error("Could not parse time:" + dateStr, e);
     }

     return null;
   } // parse

Pete