Many a time, we've seen a program reach out into the database for date times. It's annoying to see, but not entirely stupid- if you can't rely on your web servers having synchronized clocks, the centralized database may very well be the only place you can get a reliable date/time value from. This ends up meaning you get a lot of date formatting happening in the database, but again- if it's the only reliable clock, you can't do better.

Unless you aren't even looking at a clock. Mendel sends us this C#:

One of the nice things about Git is that it makes it very easy for us to learn the steps that went into a WTF. It doesn't mean it explains the WTF, as many are just inexplicable, but it's at least something.

Like this example, from Aoife.

Chilly inherited a VB .Net application which generates an "IDoc" file which is used to share data with SAP. That's TRWTF, but the code has some fun moments:

If ldCashOut < 0 Then 'CashOut
    loE2WPB06002.vorzeichen = " "
Else
    loE2WPB06002.vorzeichen = " "
End If
If liTRANSTYPE = 2 Then 'Refund is always Positive
    loE2WPB06002.vorzeichen = "+"
End If

loE2WPB06002.summe = Math.Abs(ldCashOut).ToString     'CashOut  
loE2WPB06002.zahlart = "PTCS"                           'CashOut
loE2WPB06002.vorzeichen = "-"                           'CashOut

Joe inherited some C code that left him scratching his head.

It doesn't start too badly:

Michael has a confession. Once upon a time, a very long time ago, he needed to write some JavaScript to serialize data and send it as part of a request. The challenge for Michael is that he didn't actually know JavaScript or what its built in functions could do and the task was already past the deadline by the time it got assigned to him.

function objectPrepareSave()
{
    for(var _a = 0; _a < aEditfields.length; _a++)
    {
        try
        {
            tinyMCE.execCommand('mceRemoveControl', false, aEditfields[_a]);
        }
        catch(err)
        {
        }
    }

    /* Basic Data */
    var _out = "DATA:{";
    _out += 'online="'+escape(getElementById("objOnline").checked)+'"';
    _out += ';;ref="'+escape(getElementById("objRefnum").value)+'"';
    _out += ';;name="'+escape(getElementById("objName").value)+'"';
    //_out += ';;parent="'+escape(getElementById("objParent").value)+'"';
    //_out += ';;rubric1="'+escape(getElementById("objRubric1").value)+'"';
    //_out += ';;rubric2="'+escape(getElementById("objRubric2").value)+'"';
    //_out += ';;rubric3="'+escape(getElementById("objRubric3").value)+'"';
    _out += ';;category="'+escape(getElementById("objCat").value)+'"';
    _out += ';;stars="'+escape(getElementById("objStars").value)+'"';
    //_out += ';;isle="'+escape(getElementById("objIsle").value)+'"';
    _out += ';;municipio="'+escape(getElementById("objMuni").value)+'"';
    _out += ';;city="'+escape(getElementById("objCity").value)+'"';
    //_out += ';;desc="'+escape(getElementById("objDesc").value)+'"';
    _out += ';;sDesc="'+escape(getElementById("objSDesc").value)+'"';
    //_out += ';;extra="'+escape(getElementById("objXtra").value)+'"';
    _out += ';;addition="'+escape(getElementById("objAdd").value)+'"';
    _out += ';;gifs="'+escape(getElementById("objPicList").innerHTML)+'"';
    _out += '}';
   
    /* Detail Data */
    _out += "::DETAILS:{";
    _out += 'null="null"';
   
    var _tbl = getElementById("detailTable");
    for(var _i = 1; _i < (_tbl.rows.length-1); _i++)
    {  
        var _row = _tbl.rows[_i];
        _out += ';;' + (_i - 1) + '="' + escape(_row.cells[1].textContent + ';' + _row.cells[2].lastChild.value) + '"';
    }
   
    _out += '}';
   
    /* Price Data */
   
    _out += '::PRICE:{';
    _out += 'null="null"';
   
    _tbl = getElementById("priceTable");
    for(var _i = 0; _i < _tbl.rows.length; _i++)
    {
        var _row = _tbl.rows[_i];
        if(_row.cells.length == 1)
        {
            _out += ';;' + _i + '="' + escape(_row.cells[0].textContent) + '"';
        }
        else
        {
            _out += ';;' + _i + '="';
            var _o = "";
           
            for(var _h = 0; _h < _row.cells.length; _h++)
            {
                _o += _row.cells[_h].textContent + ';';
            }
            _o = substr(_o, 0, strlen(_o) - 1);
            _out += escape(_o) + '"';
        }
    }
   
    _out += '}';
   
    _out += '::TPL:{';
    _out += 'null="null"';
   
    _tbl = getElementById("tplTable");
    var _index = 0;
    for(var _i = 0; _i < _tbl.rows.length; _i++)
    {
        var _row =_tbl.rows[_i];
        if(_row.cells.length == 1)
        {
            _out += ';;' + _index + '_' + _row.id + '="';
        }
        else
        {
            var _o = '<'+escape(_row.cells[0].textContent)+'>=<';
            if(_row.cells[1].childNodes[0].tagName)
            {
                if(_row.cells[1].childNodes[0].tagName == "INPUT" || _row.cells[1].childNodes[0].tagName == "TEXTAREA")
                {
                    _o += escape(_row.cells[1].childNodes[0].value);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                _o += escape(_row.cells[1].childNodes[0].nodeValue);
            }
           
            _o += '>';
            _out += escape(escape(_o));
        }
        _index++;
    }
   
    _out += '"}';
   
    aEditfields = new Array();
   
    return _out;
}