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Mastering Debugging: Techniques for Efficient Code Diagnosis

What Causes Bugs in Code?

Explore the common causes of bugs in software code, including programmer oversights, incorrect assumptions, and environmental factors. Understand why bugs are inevitable and how they affect software behavior, preparing you for effective debugging and code diagnosis.

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Bugs are software defects that result in the product behaving incorrectly by producing wrong results. When a software system does not handle a state because its design or implementation does not handle it, it leads to a bug. Let’s look into how bugs can arise:

Programmer oversight

Programmer oversights or lapses occur when programmers fail to consider specific situations their program might encounter, which can result in buggy code.

Python 3.5
# Define a function called BinarySearch that takes a list and an element
def BinarySearch(A, elem):
  left = 0  # Set the leftmost index to 0
  right = len(A)-1  # Set the rightmost index to the last index of the list
  
  # While the left index is less than the right
  while left < right:
    # Calculate the middle index by adding the left index to half of the difference between right and left indices
    mid = (right-left)//2+ left
    # If the middle element equals the target element
    if A[mid] == elem:
      return True  # Return True indicating that the element was found
    
    # If the middle element is greater than the target element
    if A[mid] > elem:
      right = mid-1  # Move the right boundary to the mid index - 1
      
    # If the middle element is less than the target element
    else:
      left = mid+1  # Move the left boundary to the mid index + 1
  
  # After all elements are checked and the target is not found, return False
  return False
# Create a test array
testArr1 = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
# Test the BinarySearch function with the number 3 (which is present in the list)
print(BinarySearch(testArr1, 3))  # Expected output: True
# Test the BinarySearch function with the number 5 (which is present in the list)
print(BinarySearch(testArr1, 5))  # Expected output: True
# Test the BinarySearch function with the number 10 (which is not present in the list)
print(BinarySearch(testArr1, 10))  # Expected output: False

For example, the code above needs to handle a particular use case. What is it? Before checking the answer below, try to debug it yourself, perhaps by adding more test cases.

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