Mark Baker and Aaron Jenkins had one thing in common: they were both in the midst of a transition at Initech Global. It was Aaron's last day on the job and Mark's very first, and Aaron was tasked with helping Mark get acquainted with the applications, servers, and whatever else a new employee might need.

Of course, seeing that it was Aaron's last day, Mark's "brain dump" consisted of a single item: how to unlock the front door and disarm the alarm system. "So let's see," Aaron explained, "if you're the first one in, just put this here key into this here lock and give it a turn. Got it? Then punch 8863 on the alarm panel. Got it?"

Aaron's only other bit of fleeting advice was "everything else is checked in, you'll find it." And find it he did. One of the first pieces of code that Mark found was this:

NumPages = IntDivide(ds.Tables(0).Rows.Count, 56) + 1

Curious as to why a special function was needed to divide integers in .NET, Mark took a look at IntDivide().

'------------------------------------------------------------------ '-- NAME: IntDivide '-- PURPOSE: Returns the integer division of one '-- number by another. '-- IN PARAMETERS: Numerator, denominator. '-- OUT PARAMETERS: Result. '------------------------------------------------------------------ '-- REVISION HISTORY: '-- '-- WHEN WHO WHAT '-- 08/29/08 ???? Initial creation. '------------------------------------------------------------------ Public Function IntDivide(ByVal Num As Integer, ByVal Denom As Integer) As Integer Dim Result As Integer = 0 If Denom <> 0 Then Dim SQL As String = "SELECT (" & Num.ToString & "/" & Denom.ToString & ") AS Res" Dim ds As New DataSet If GetDataSet(SQL, ds) Then If ds.Tables(0).Rows.Count > 0 Then Result = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0).Item(0) End If End If End If Return Result End Function

Yes, Aaron made a call to SQL Server, and filled a DataSet just divide two integers! I guess Math.Floor(Num / Denom) was too easy.

As for Aaron's "how to disarm the alarm" instructions? He ended up using them the following week, and the police subsequently showed up. But at least he did learn how to use a key.