Question

Below is a code in C# for rss reader, why this code is bad? this class generates a list of the 5 most recent posts, sorted by title. What do you use to analyze code in C#?

    static Story[] Parse(string content)
    {
        var items = new List<string>();
        int start = 0;
        while (true)
        {

            var nextItemStart = content.IndexOf("<item>", start);
            var nextItemEnd = content.IndexOf("</item>", nextItemStart);
            if (nextItemStart < 0 || nextItemEnd < 0) break;

            String nextItem = content.Substring(nextItemStart, nextItemEnd + 7 - nextItemStart);
            items.Add(nextItem);
            start = nextItemEnd;
        }

        var stories = new List<Story>();
        for (byte i = 0; i < items.Count; i++)
        {
            stories.Add(new Story()
            {
                title = Regex.Match(items[i], "(?<=<title>).*(?=</title>)").Value,
                link = Regex.Match(items[i], "(?<=<link>).*(?=</link>)").Value,
                date = Regex.Match(items[i], "(?<=<pubDate>).*(?=</pubdate>)").Value
            });
        }

        return stories.ToArray();
    }

Answer 1

It is bad because it’s using string parsing when there are excellent classes in the framework for parsing XML. Even better, there are classes to deal with RSS feeds.

ETA:

Sorry to not have answered your second question earlier. There are a great number of tools to analyze correctness and quality of C# code. There’s probably a huge list compiled somewhere, but here’s a few I use on a daily basis to help ensure quality code:

• StyleCop (code formatting standards)
• Resharper (idiomatic programming, gotcha catching)
• FxCop (code correctness, standards adherence, idiomatic programming)
• Pex (white box testing)
• Nitriq (code quality metrics)
• NUnit (unit testing)