Summary: Debugging Interlude—Avoiding/Finding Mistakes

As much as possible, use these techniques to help you to avoid making mistakes in your code:

• Each method should have a clear and focused purpose
• When a method has complex logic, divide the logic into portions performed by private methods that your public method can call
• Clearly document each method’s purpose and preconditions
• Ensure that any method another method calls is error-free by testing it separately in its own program
• Use stubs for methods that you still need to implement
• When debugging a method, trace its logic by writing temporary statements that either display the values of key variables or simply report the current stage of execution
• Simplify the requirements or feature set of a complex program for your initial solution
• Test your program extensively using reasonable data
• Test data should include values within, outside of, and at the endpoints of each range of legal input
• For programs that use real-time data, initial testing should use simulated but realistic data