Pols Consulting

I came across a very strange number today while writing some unit tests.  Apparently Java thinks “10WTF?” is a perfectly valid number and does not throw a ParseException when you try converting the string to a number.

Here is the unit test to prove it!

import junit.framework.TestCase;
 
import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
 
public class StrangeNumberTest extends TestCase {
 
    public void testWierdJavaNumber() throws ParseException {
        DecimalFormat format = new DecimalFormat("##,###.00");
 
        assertEquals("Amazing, but true",
                     10,
                     (Long) format.parse("10WTF?"), 0);
    }
}

Romilly and I are running an introductory session at XPDay to evoke some of the fun and exhilaration that XP teams can expect as they work. It’s easy to read about the key practices and values of XP, but not so easy to relate them to real day-to-day project experiences.

After a brief introduction, the session will run an accelerated simulation of a day in the life of an XP team. See the developers, customer and coach in action in this fast-paced session and try to guess what will happen next!

I hope to see you at the conference for a chat and a beer!