C# Antipatterns

Answer 1

The project I'm on had fifty classes, all inheriting from the same class, that all defined:

public void FormatZipCode(String zipCode) { ... }

Either put it in the parent class, or a utility class off to the side. Argh.

Have you considered browsing through The Daily WTF?

Answer 2

Two string anti patterns
Anti-Pattern # 1
Checking strings for null or empty

//Bad
if( myString == null || myString == "" )
OR
if( myString == null || myString.Length == 0 )

//Good
string.IsNullOrEmpty(myString)

Anti-Pattern # 2 (only for .NET 4.0)
Checking strings for null or empty or white space

//Bad
if( myString == null || myString == "" || myString.Trim() == "")

//Good
string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(myString) 

Answer 3

Found this a few times in a system I inherited...

if(condition){
  some=code;
}
else
{
  //do nothing
}

and vice versa

if(condition){
  //do nothing
}
else
{
  some=code;
}

Answer 4

if(data != null)
{
  variable = data;
}
else
{
  variable = new Data();
}

can be better written as

variable = (data != null) ? data : new Data();

and even better written as

variable = data ?? new Data();

Last code listing works in .NET 2.0 and above

Answer 5

Not understanding that bool is a real type, not just a convention

if (myBooleanVariable == true)
{
    ...
}

or, even better

if (myBooleanVariable != false)
{
    ...
}

Constructs like these are often used by C and C++ developers where the idea of a boolean value was just a convention (0 == false, anything else is true); this is not necessary (or desirable) in C# or other languages that have real booleans.

Updated: Rephrased the last paragraph to improve its clarity.

Answer 6

I have found this in our project and almost broke the chair...

DateTime date = new DateTime(DateTime.Today.Year, 
                             DateTime.Today.Month, 
                             DateTime.Today.Day);