For Loop Will Not Execute

Question

I have been a software engineer for a number of years now, and thus far I have never come across any coding issues that truly merit a post such as this. Someone has almost always run across the issue before, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel, or solution as it were.
However, a number of times I have run across instances where the JRE simply... does not execute parts of my code, and throws no exceptions.
The sample code is a simple logging application, watered down to the bare minimum for the purposes of this forum:
public class Log {
public static void main(String[] args)    {Log log = new Log();}
public Log() {Logger.log("Hello World");}
import java.util.*;*
import java.io.*;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
public abstract class Logger {
private static final int SIZE = 2;
private static final SimpleDateFormat DAY = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE");
private static final String
  DIR = "logs/",
  EXT = ".log",
  FILTER = ".*log\\z",
  DNE = "DNE";
private static int i,oldest;
private static long previous = 0;
private static FileFilter filter = new LogFilter();
private static FileWriter out;
private static File file,directory;
private static File[] list;
public synchronized static void log(String param) {
  try {
   directory = new File(DIR);
   file = new File(DIR + getDay() + EXT);
   list = directory.listFiles(filter);
   if (file.createNewFile()) {
    readOnly();
    reconcile();
   write(param);
  catch (Exception exception) {}
private static void write(String param) throws Exception {
  out = new FileWriter(file, true);
  out.write(param);
  out.close();
private static void readOnly() throws Exception {
  for (i=0;i<list.length;i++) {list.setReadOnly();}
private static void reconcile() {
try {
previous = list[SIZE].lastModified();
oldest = SIZE;
for (i=SIZE;i<=0;i--) {
if (list[i].lastModified() <= previous) {
previous = list[i].lastModified();
oldest = i;
list[oldest].delete();
catch (Exception exception) {System.out.println("Skipping reconciliation...");}
private static String getDay() throws Exception {
return DAY.format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());
private static class LogFilter implements FileFilter {
public LogFilter() {}
public boolean accept(File param) {
try {
if ((param.getName()).matches(FILTER)) {return true;}
else {return false;}
catch (Exception exception) {return false;}
*The problem*:
Ok, easy visual, this is the "log/" directory as I run the Log.java application repeatedly and iterate the date on my computer as I do so.
Thursday
*log/*
+Thursday.log+
Friday
*log/*
+Thursday.log+
+Friday.log+
Saturday
*log/*
+Thursday.log+
+Friday.log+
+Saturday.log+
Sunday
*log/*
+Friday.log+
+Saturday.log+
+Sunday.log+
Monday
*log/*
+Friday.log+
+Saturday.log+
+Monday.log+
This is the point at which I go ???
Turns out, the JRE skips the execution of my for loop in the *reconcile()* method when the date rolls over to Monday, and from then on it simply deletes the previous day's log instead of the oldest log.
Why?  Who knows.
Things I have tried:
- Using another variable integer for the *readOnly()* method
- Removing the synchronized keyword from the *log(String param)* method
- Second call to *directory.listFiles(filter)* and setting *SIZE* to *3* after the old files have been set to read-only
- Removing the call to *readOnly()*
- Verified that the call to *readOnly()* does not alter the +modified+ date on the log files
- Changed Logger.java from a +static+ class to a +local+ class
Things I cannot do:
This log application stores privy information about end-users at locations across the country in the event that there are support issues that need to be resolved, and the agreement is that we store this information no more than three days.  Just wanted to make sure, that the hopefully informed respondants to this issue, know that the obvious solution (storing seven day records), is unfortunately not available to me.
Edited by: Threadstorm on Jan 8, 2009 8:24 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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Answer 1

HA! Most excellent. The last place I would ever look.
Yes, seems like Java sorts the files in such a way that everything works fine without the loop until Monday rolls over.
Now I can have a better appreciation for that second set of eyes.
I use for loops so frequently that I never look at them (though I did stare at this one myself prior to this post, much to my chagrin now) but the subtracting iteration (which I use once in a blue moon) was necessary for the nature of the code.
But ok, up and running! (whew) was going to be a long day until now.
To answer your question though, the Logger is static so I don't have to pass it around to dozens and dozens of other modules but rather just include the package on the fly as I develop new modules that need to log information, and I like to write most mundane things myself if I can, that way I have the freedom to modify them at will.
Thanks again! I'm now a happy camper once more.
I'm also thankful that I don't have to chalk up another notch on the wall of cases where the JRE behaves magically and truly ignores code which I have definitely run into before. Something about listCellRenderers and the order of calls made to them, or some such and JRE doesn't read one of the lines. It's been a year or two.
Edited by: Threadstorm on Jan 8, 2009 8:47 AM