CodeSOD: A Case of Bad Timing

Although I've retired from full time work, I still consult for lots of small mom-n-pop places. Mostly, it's little scripts to automate doing this and that. Sometimes, the boss' kid or nephew was asked to get ambitious and solve a problem. When the inevitable happens, they call me to bail them out.

For the most part, it's usually something like some file got moved/renamed/deleted. Sometimes, they got ambitious and attempted to write a batch file. This time, a college freshman, who claimed to be "good with computers", had written a program to control the little scripts and jobs in an automated fashion. Apparently, it was getting too complicated for him and they asked me if I could work with it.

It's a pity that Windows doesn't have some sort of way to run a task on a schedule...

Anonymized, but structurally unmodified, and no, there wasn't a single comment in the file:

public class TaskScheduler { public void runTask(int taskNum, int ...args) throws Exception { switch (taskNum) { case 1: function1(args[0]); return; case 2: function2(args[0],args[1]); return; case 3: function3(args[0],args[1],args[2],true); return; case 4: function3(args[0],args[1],args[2],false); return; case 5: runTask(2,args[1]+1); return; case 6: runTask(3,args[1]+1,args[2]+1); runTask(5,args[1]); return; // OP: triple-nested switch meaning: "Run only during business hours: 9-5, M-F, with special case on Wed" case 7: switch(new GregorianCalendar().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK)) { case 0: return; case 1: case 2: case 3: runTask(3, 5, 8); case 4: case 5: { int hourOfDay = new GregorianCalendar().get(Calendar.HOUR); runTask(6, hourOfDay, 23); switch (hourOfDay) { case 0: case 1: case 2: case 3: case 4: case 5: case 6: case 7: case 8: return; case 9: case 10: case 11: case 12: case 13: case 14: case 15: case 16: case 17: runTask(2, args[1]); return; case 18: case 19: case 20: case 21: case 22: case 23: return; default: return; // OP: I suppose that 25'th hour *could* // fall during business hours!!! } return; } case 6: return; default: return; // OP: in case of days outside the range: Sun..Sat } //... case 184: { function184(new Date()); runTask(1); runTask(27); runTask(16, 1, 15, 34); // OP: 84 more return; } default: return; } } // all renamed for anonymity, but they were about this meaningfully named void function1(int arg) { // ... } void function2(int arg1, int arg2) { // ... } void function3(int arg1, int arg2, int arg3, boolean arg4) { // ... } // ... void function184(Date d) { // ... }}

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