>
>I already said in my original post that I always code for the impossible scenario using a type of silentError() function. My question was on other people's opinions, because I've known excellent coders who held opinions on both sides. It depends on their philosophy of software. At what point do you cease assertion testing? Do you go back up and make sure that "abc" + "def" is exactly equal to "abcdef"? What if there's an error in the concatenation algorithm on a machine?
>

On a question of an error in the concatenation algorithm, that is actually a valid question.

Once again, the principles of data warehousing can help here. Data Profiling of result sets - if someone is concerned about errors in fundamental software string handling functions, then set up a profile test.

Again, good question - and there are ways to do "due diligence" to address it.