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Programmer Humor @programming.dev Feyter @programming.dev

The oldest joke in programming history

A women sent her kid that was into programming to the grocery store and told it:

"Please buy 1 bottle of milk if they have eggs buy 2"

The kid returned with just 2 bottles of milk. When it's mom ask why it bought 2 bottles of milk, the kid said:

"Because they had eggs"

... Was the kid right?

2
2 comments

  • I always think this joke is more of a linguistics/grammar joke than programming. The kid resolves the ambiguity in the ellipsis incorrectly, but why is this a programmer joke?

  • For a serious reoly, I think the expression "If they have eggs, buy two" is redundant. If they didn't have eggs, the kid just can't and won't buy any eggs.

    I think the proper command would be, "Please buy 1 bottle of milk and two eggs." That way, the kid won't be confused and it's still a proper valid command.

    Unfortunately though, the sentence is ambiguous even to non-programmers. It is unknown whether the if condition applies to

    • buying two eggs (buy two eggs)
    • buying two bottles of milk (buy two bottles instead)
    • or buying a bottle of milk (buy another bottle)

    Simply because they didn't specify which to buy.

    For a non-serious reply,

    cart.add(supermarket.takeProduct(ProductType.milk, 1));

if (supermarket.getProduct(type: ProductType.eggs).length > 0) {
    cart.add(supermarket.takeProduct(Product type.milk, 2));
}

cart.checkout();

    The kid should have bought a total of 3 bottles.