Production code floods LOG with Warning notes

[novinosrin]

Hey Folks, I am inheriting a production code that floods LOG with Warning notes? Often times, it is presumed to run fine and so apparently the WARNINGS can perhaps be ignored, but I am wary. Whilst I am open to help, and fix issues, passing the buck is something that concerns me. I have flagged the team. However, in an event of mess, I fear I might be held responsible/accountable? 

How do I deal with this problem? Please advice as I am little disturbed

[Reeza]

I would scan the warnings and make a list of them for your boss, some may not be problematic but if you see some that look problematic it's worth flagging to your supervisor and explaining why they could be problematic. Then ask your boss in writing how to handle this, and if they would like you to investigate and help resolve the issues/rework the code to get rid of the warnings. 
Digging through code takes time, and changes often needed to be tested thoroughly. The work may not be worth the effort depending on the project. 

And in writing means you have a track of accountability for how this decision was made if it ever comes back. 

[Reeza]

I'll add this depends on how much control you have over your work and time. If you need to be working on other deliverables and this would take away from it, then it may not be a priority. However, if you also have time here and there to work and fix this then it may be worth it but almost certainly when you start this you'll find bugs and then you'll have to work through those to understand to fix and the implications of said fixes. 

[SASKiwi]

IMHO, having warnings from the beginning in production code is poor programming practice. Production logs should be clean of any errors, warnings and some "warning type" notes. If it were me I would fix these so I can be confident when a new warning turns up it is likely to be caused by a genuine change. 

[Kurt_Bremser]

Any code that deserves the appellation "production" must not throw a single WARNING on a successful run, PERIOD. Fix it if you're responsible, or notify the one who is.

[Ksharp]

It is depend on what kind of warning message . Some you can ignore like :

1 proc delete data=x;run;

WARNING: File WORK.X.DATA does not exist.
NOTE: PROCEDURE DELETE used (Total process time):
real time 0.02 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

Some you could ignore.
Talk to your boss ,if he is comfortable with these warning .

But in Pharamcy Field ,the big CRO company usually don't allow WARNING message exist .

[novinosrin]

Hello @ everyone, Thank you so much for the responses. Please bear with me as I want to read your responses thoroughly and then acknowledge. I just want to take a moment to thank you real quick. I haven't read yet, but will do by end of day (EST) and come back to you with subjective context. 

[Tom]

Normally if the log is generating a LOT of warnings it is usually from unexpected DATA.  A program normally processes many more observations of data than it executes lines of code.

So check the types of warnings and control for them. 

[tarheel13]

Punt it back to the programmer who wrote it if that person still works in your organization. Generally, logs need to be scrubbed for errors, warnings, and notes. I scan mine for error and warnings as well as notes like uninitialized, repeat by values, missing values were converted, invalid numeric data, etc.