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Picture of arnie
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LanguageLog has a very amusing post about the perils of the use of Search and Replace.


Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!
 
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Very funny.

I ran into a similar problem back in the infancy of search and replace. A complex loan agreement (100 plus pages) was being modified to reflect that the lender was not a Bank, but a Credit Union. The term Lender was chosen to replace Bank, with the result that one of the Events of Default became "declaring Lenderruptcy". The agreement went through several drafts before anyone noticed it.


"There are not ten people in the world whose death would spoil my dinner, but there are one or two whose deaths would break my heart." T.B. Macaulay, to his sister
 
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Picture of Kalleh
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Funny, arnie. Big Grin

Oh, there was a great one that happened at our workplace. Unfortunately I can't be specific, but fixing it cost thousands of dollars.

I try very hard not to use "search and replace" for just that reason.
 
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Picture of zmježd
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I use search and replace a lot at work, but I almost never just have it go off and replace all occurrences, but do them one at a time, so I can review what's being change. (Instead of Change All, I use Change and Find Next.)


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
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Picture of Kalleh
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Yes, that's the way to do it. In our document the "search and replace" replaced something that was a header on every single page, making quite an embarrassing change.
 
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Picture of bethree5
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Aw, come'on, Kalleh, not even a little hint, huh, huh?
 
Posts: 568 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... JUST NEW JERSEY!Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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My computer doesn't seem to have Search and Replace. It has Search and Destroy. It's supposed to be an anti-virus program. Is that why people who receive e-mails from me think I'm a bit odd? Confused
 
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Picture of Caterwauller
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quote:
Is that why people who receive e-mails from me think I'm a bit odd?

No, we know you're odd for myriad other reasons.


*******
"Show your true colors. Mine is Yellow." ~Big Bird
 
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