How to rate my development skills?

Hello,

I am male 24
i graduated with a batchelors in computer science in december of 07.
long island NY

this is my first job in this field
have been working as a junior programer for past 4 months (VB.net, sql,
web(asp html css development)
its a small and other programers are older unix guys so i dont know how to
compare myself to them
started at $40k per year 3 month review brought me up to $43k for
35hrs/week
have to spend alot for health benefits
1.5 paid days off per month <-- also coment at my salary please

i have no idea weather i am where i should be in my carrear/ability level.
how do you guys judge your abilities and how much time do you spend working
how much time do you spend learning your craft of development/programing

also it recently took me aproximately 8 hours to write a vb probram that
takes a textfile as input (the file was a report format so some lines are
sumations and breaks which i had to seperate out from real data) code below.
I tried to make it general since i will probably will have to reuse alot of
this code for similar projects in the future here.
I might have spent too much time making it this general so that i can reuse
it later.
I spent about an hour just learning the report so that i know what to put
whre in my db.

I beleive that the next similar project i could do in 2hours tops because i
have this base.

it basicaly reads a table which tells it the directory of files to run. the
name pattern of files to process and which key to apply for that file.
for each record in this table the program looks in the directory. If there
is a file it will pull the key information and the other records of data
that we want to save.
it opens a file.
it reads a line
checks the line to see if it is a header (i want 1 peice of data from 1 type
of header repeated throughout the document)
if not a header then check if the line is the lenght that the key says it is
supposed to be
if lenght match then run it into a key. if ran through key correctrly than
add to a dataset
after a file processed update the dataset(write the new records, alter
existing records if changed)
move on to next fiele,
move on to next run entry

i still have to add some error handeling.
here is the code

Imports System.IO

Module Module1

#Region "Variables"

Dim pc As New ProcessControl.ProcessControl

Dim dp As New DPwriteoffs

Dim elf As ELF.ErrorLogFile

Dim dsrun1 As dsRun

Dim dskey1 As dsKey

Dim dswriteoffs1 As dsWriteoffs

Dim batchname As String

Dim starttime As String

Dim blntest As Boolean = True

Dim pcnumber As String

#End Region

#Region "statistics variables"

Dim filesempty As Integer = 0

Dim blnfilegood As Boolean = True

Dim files As Integer = 0

Dim filesgood As Integer = 0

Dim filesbad As Integer = 0

Dim blnlinegood As Boolean = True

Dim fileslines As Integer = 0

Dim fileslinesgood As Integer = 0

Dim fileslinesbad As Integer = 0

Dim lines As Integer = 0

Dim linesgood As Integer = 0

Dim linesbad As Integer = 0

#End Region

Sub Main()

Try

batchname = pc.CreateBatchName()

starttime = Now.ToString()

pc.AddProcess(pcnumber, batchname, "OK", "", "", starttime, "", 0, 0, 0, "")



dsrun1 = dp.getrundata

Dim runrow As dsRun.TwriteoffrunRow

For Each runrow In dsrun1.Twriteoffrun

Try

Dim dirinfo As New DirectoryInfo(runrow.directory)

Dim f() As FileInfo = dirinfo.GetFiles(runrow.namepattern)

If f.Length > 0 Then

dskey1 = dp.getkey(runrow.keytouse)

dswriteoffs1 = dp.getwriteoffs

For Each filei As FileInfo In f

readfile(filei.FullName)

Next

End If

Catch ex As Exception

elf = New ELF.ErrorLogFile("WriteoffPrep_" & Now.ToString("yyyyMMddhhmmss"),
runrow.directory)

elf.writetolog(ex.ToString())

End Try

If Not dswriteoffs1 Is Nothing Then

dp.updatewriteoffs(dswriteoffs1)

End If

Next

Catch ex As Exception

elf = New ELF.ErrorLogFile("WriteoffPrep_" & Now.ToString("yyyyMMddhhmmss"),
"c:\")

elf.writetolog(ex.ToString())

End Try

End Sub

Public Sub readfile(ByVal fullname As String)

Try

Dim groupclient As String

Dim writeoff As dsWriteoffs.TwriteoffRow

Dim datalinelenght As Integer = addwhatlineissupposedtobe()

Dim line As String

Dim reader As StreamReader = File.OpenText(fullname)

line = reader.ReadLine()

While Not line Is Nothing

Dim blnkeywork As Boolean = False

writeoff = dswriteoffs1.Twriteoff.NewTwriteoffRow

If Not Trim$(line) = "" Then

If Not isrptheader(line) = 1 Then

If isrptfooter(line) = 1 Then

Exit Sub

Else

If Not ischunkheader(line) = 1 Then

If line.Length = datalinelenght Then

writeoff.client = groupclient

trykey(writeoff, line)

writeoff.id = dswriteoffs1.Twriteoff.Rows.Count + 1

writeoff.filename = fullname

writeoff.writeoffdate = datefunc(fullname)

dswriteoffs1.Twriteoff.AddTwriteoffRow(writeoff)

Else

'line not important

Dim sss As Integer = 0

End If

Else

groupclient = findclient(line)

End If

End If

End If

End If

line = reader.ReadLine()

End While

reader.Close()

Catch ex As Exception

elf = New ELF.ErrorLogFile("WriteoffPrep_" & Now.ToString("yyyyMMddhhmmss"),
Path.GetDirectoryName(fullname))

elf.writetolog(ex.ToString())

End Try

End Sub

Public Function datefunc(ByVal line As String) As Date

Dim ddate As Date

Dim str As String

str = line.Substring(InStr(line, "sys1") + 3, 6)

str = str.Substring(2, 2) & "/" & str.Substring(4, 2) & "/" &
str.Substring(0, 2)

ddate = Date.Parse(str)

Return ddate

End Function

Public Function findclient(ByVal line As String) As String

Dim pos As Integer = InStr(line, "CLIENT:")

Return line.Substring(pos + 6, 4)

End Function

Public Function ischunkheader(ByVal line As String) As Integer

Try

If line.Substring(0, 7) = "# PHYS" Then

Return 1

End If

Catch ex As Exception

Return 0

End Try

End Function

Public Function isrptheader(ByVal line As String) As Integer

Dim rptheader As String = "E&l1O(s16.667H&l5.667C"

If Trim$(line) = Trim$(rptheader) Then

Return 1

Else

Return 0

End If

End Function

Public Function isrptfooter(ByVal line As String) As Integer

Dim rptheader As String = "E&l1O(s12.5H &l5.667C"

If Trim$(line) = Trim$(rptheader) Then

Return 1

Else

Return 0

End If

End Function

Public Function trykey(ByRef row As dsWriteoffs.TwriteoffRow, ByVal line As
String) As Boolean

Dim keyrow As dsKey.TWriteoffsKeyRow

For Each keyrow In dskey1.TWriteoffsKey

Dim dbcolumn As String = LTrim$(RTrim$(keyrow.dbname))

Dim str As String = line.Substring(0, keyrow.lenght)

line = line.Remove(0, keyrow.lenght)

If LTrim$(RTrim$(str)).Length > 0 Then

Select Case keyrow.type

Case "s"

If dbcolumn.ToUpper = "NAME" Then

row.firstname = Trim$(str.Split(",")(0))

row.lastname = Trim$(str.Split(",")(1))

ElseIf dbcolumn.ToUpper = "FILLER" Then

' do nothing with this data

Else

row.Item(dbcolumn) = LTrim$(RTrim$(str))

End If

Case "i"

Try

If InStr(str, "-") Then

str = str.Replace("-", "")

row.Item(dbcolumn) = 0 - Integer.Parse(LTrim$(RTrim$(str)))

Else

row.Item(dbcolumn) = Integer.Parse(LTrim$(RTrim$(str)))

End If

Catch ex As Exception

elf.writetolog("Integer parsing unsuccesfull : " & dbcolumn & vbCrLf & str)

End Try

Case "d"

Dim ddate As Date

Dim year As String

Dim month As String

Dim day As String

Try

If InStr(str, "/") Then

ddate = Date.Parse(str)

Else

If (Integer.Parse(str.Chars(0) & str.Chars(1))) > 12 Then ' year first than

year = str.Substring(0, 4)

month = str.Substring(4, 2)

day = str.Substring(6, 2)

Else

year = str.Substring(4, 4)

month = str.Substring(0, 2)

day = str.Substring(2, 2)

End If

ddate = Date.Parse(month & "/" & day & "/" & year)

End If

row.Item(dbcolumn) = ddate

Catch ex As Exception

elf.writetolog("Date parsing unsuccesfull : " & dbcolumn & vbCrLf & str)

blnlinegood = False

End Try

Case "e" ' if the date is saved as string

Dim ddate As Date

Dim year As String

Dim month As String

Dim day As String

Try

If (Integer.Parse(str.Chars(0) & str.Chars(1))) > 12 Then ' year first than

year = str.Substring(0, 4)

month = str.Substring(4, 2)

day = str.Substring(6, 2)

Else

year = str.Substring(4, 4)

month = str.Substring(0, 2)

day = str.Substring(2, 2)

End If

row.Item(dbcolumn) = (month & "/" & day & "/" & year)

Catch ex As Exception

row.Item(dbcolumn) = str

blnlinegood = False

elf.writetolog("Date parsing unsuccesfull : " & dbcolumn & vbCrLf & str)

End Try

Case "f"

Try

If InStr(str, "-") Then

str = str.Replace("-", "")

row.Item(dbcolumn) = 0 - Double.Parse(LTrim$(RTrim$(str)))

Else

row.Item(dbcolumn) = Double.Parse(LTrim$(RTrim$(str)))

End If

Catch ex As Exception

elf.writetolog("Double parsing unsuccesfull : " & dbcolumn & vbCrLf & str)

blnlinegood = False

End Try

Case Else

blnlinegood = False

'elf.writetolog("There may be a problem with a key. Review the bill key &
file " & filename & " & line " & linesgood + linesbad)

End Select

End If

Next

End Function

Public Function addwhatlineissupposedtobe()

Dim i As Integer = 0

Dim row As dsKey.TWriteoffsKeyRow

For Each row In dskey1.TWriteoffsKey

i = i + row.lenght

Next

Return i

End Function

End Module