Manager: “Hey journeyman can you fix this address on this page so that it knows to take a system configuration?”

Journeyman:  “Sure, give me a second for an estimate.”

You find the code:

public class AddressService {

      public String getFormattedAddress(Datasource ds, int yourFormat) {
           if (yourFormat == 1) { /* do this format */ }
           else { /* do this format */ }
           return addressString;

         }
 }

Now go in and track down the code to change .   Hmm interesting function called getFormattedAddress().  Let’s see, before I touch it do a code search in Eclipse : used in 147 places!!!!!  Ugh . . .

You shan’t dare change the function call in ALL those places, nightmare, just for one of the calls.

So here’s one way to do avoid this messy situation:

1. Add a new property, yourConfig, with getters and setters.
2. Override the function getFormattedAddress so that it takes your new parameter
3. Set that parameter in the overriding function.
4. Modify the original function to check the parameter, using a default if the value is empty.
5. Call the original function form the overriding function
6. Don’t forget to reset the default value!

Something like this:

public class AddressService {
      private String yourConfig = "";

      public String getFormattedAddress(Datasource ds, int yourFormat) {
           String localConfig =
                   (getYourConfig == "") ? "default" : getYourConfig();
           setYourConfig("");
           if (yourFormat == 1) { /* do this format +localConfig */ }
           else { /* do this format + localConfig */ }
           return addressString;

         }
     public String getFormattedAddress(Datasource ds, int yourFormat, String inYourConfig) {
           setYourConfig(inYourConfig);
           return getFormattedAddress(ds,yourFormat);
     }

    public String setYourConfig(String inStr) {this.yourConfig = inStr;}
    public void getYourConfig() {return this.yourConfig;}
 }

Now you can call the function from either its original state, or, pass in a config.

Anyway, one thing they wanted was batch commits . . . so I wrote this quick little piece:

It creates a temp table, populates it, and puts a DBMS_OUTPUT line for whatever number I set the commit at . . . pretty self explanatory.

CREATE   GLOBAL  TEMPORARY TABLE temp_Cursor_Count  (
testNumber Number(10)
) ON COMMIT PRESERVE ROWS;
commit;

DECLARE

curVariable Number;

cursorCount Number(10) := 0;
cursorCommit Number(10) := 1000;
cursorMod Number(10) := 1;

CURSOR tt is
select * from temp_Cursor_Count;

begin

–populate temp table
For i in 1..9999
Loop
insert into temp_Cursor_Count(testNumber) values (i);
end loop;
commit;

FOR record_tt IN tt LOOP
–INITIALIZE Cursor values
curVariable      :=record_tt.testNumber;

cursorCount := cursorCount + 1;

select MOD(cursorCount,cursorCommit) into cursorMod from dual;

if cursorMod=0 then
–Normally this is where your COMMIT would occur.
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(cursorCount);
end if;

END LOOP;
end;

truncate table temp_Cursor_Count;
commit;
drop table temp_Cursor_Count;
commit;

So I started digging through the commands and found SUBST. It associates a path with a drive letter.

Just open up a command line and type in the following syntax:


subst (virtual drive letter): (actual path)


So, for instance, say I want to mount a folder “\\atlas\shrugged” from a network drive as drive letter “q:” on my local -

subst q: \\atlas\shrugged


And a local folder as “x:” -

subst x: C:\journeyman


Disconnecting the virtual drives is simple enough, use the “/d” flag for delete:

subst x: /d


I haven’t found a ton of use cases for this yet, but it’s a nice little command line tool for any automated tasks you might think of someday.

Funny enough, when I was going through the PortableApps setup it now allows you to install to a folder — as I remember the older versions needed a drive — chuckle.