Many years ago, I discovered that I could use Excel’s AutoFill functionality as an ad-hoc code generator when writing tedious SQL statements (I once write a SQL statement with 106 LEFT JOINs in it, thanks to a poor table design). In the past, I’ve used tools such as Perl to crank out code as well.

Code generation has been getting a lot more attention; in fact, I plan to write a TechRepublic column about it this month. While I question why so many people are writing so much cookie cutter code, it is definitely happening. Are you using any kind of code generation? If so, what?

J.Ja

Disclosure of Justin’s industry affiliations: Justin James has a contract with Spiceworks to write product buying guides. He is also under contract to OpenAmplify, which is owned by Hapax, to write a series of blogs, tutorials, and other articles.

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