Spotted in the wild…
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnGetInitialDate] ( @Month int = null, @Year int = null, @CurrentDate datetime) RETURNS intAS BEGIN Declare @ReportDate datetime Declare @InitialMonth int if @month IS null set @month = Month(Dateadd(m, -1, @CurrentDate)) if @Year IS null set @Year = Year(Dateadd(m, -1, @CurrentDate))-- NORMALISE Date/* Select @Date = StartDateTime, @DateDiff = AgeInMonths from ( select top 1 StartDateTime, AgeInMonths from dbo.<censored> where StartDateTime is not null ) TA*/ set @ReportDate = Cast(@Year AS VARCHAR(4)) + '-' + Right('00' + Cast(@month AS VARCHAR(2)),2) + '-01' set @InitialMonth = datediff(m, @CurrentDate, @ReportDate) return @InitialMonthEND
This SQL Server function features:
- A name that doesn’t tell you anything ✔
- Comments indicating non-existent functionality ✔
- Big sections commented out with no explanation ✔
- Using strings for date arithmetic ✔
After much thought I concluded that this code is functionally equivalent to DATEDIFF(MONTH, GETDATE(), @ReportDate), except you can choose a different year or month for the current time.
This function is still at large on a production database server (names have been suppressed to protect the innocent). Developers are recommended not to approach it as it is considered dangerous, and extremely confusing.