Programmers, both those just taking their first steps in programming and the most prominent specialists in the field, make mistakes. Undoubtedly, when working in the field of programming, the proverb is of great importance: “man learns from his mistakes”. Many types of irregularities can be made while coding. Most of them usually result from habits that one develops while learning something new. Correcting them as soon as they are noticed directly affects the development of skills in programming – both in terms of theoretical skills and practical skills. This article will outline some of the mistakes made while coding, along with ways to fix them so they can be avoided in the future.
Learning too many programming languages, frameworks, and technologies.
This is one of the most common mistakes made by most people starting in programming. Having Java, C++, Python and many other, frameworks or technologies is impressive. However, keep in mind that it is better to learn one programming language at an advanced degree than five at a beginner’s degree. It’s good to know many of them, but it’s good to focus on one language at first. Once one gains experience, the programmer will have no difficulty in switching to another.
Comparison, self-doubt, and fear
It is human nature to always compare ourselves with others, and this is also the case with programming. Sometimes programming is stressful for novice programmers. A feeling of insecurity arises, though not necessarily rightly so. Programming is a field of taking on challenges and helping others to solve problems.
One should ask oneself… What can be done to become better and better? What areas need additional learning input? Insight and dissecting the next steps for yourself will help to tame troubling thoughts.
Writing unstructured code and ignoring its quality
An experienced programmer can easily spot a beginner by looking at their code format. Here are some of the mistakes beginners make in formatting their code:
– Lack of proper indentation in the code
– Inconsistent use of newlines and spaces or putting everything on one line
– Writing too large a function or putting everything on one line, function, or file.
– Wrong variable and function names (e.g., the variable or function name XyZQwweyggdMNdfFeF makes no sense). Randomly use lowercase and uppercase variable names.
– Lack of commenting or excessive commenting on code
Of course, it should be noted that the above list of errors is not closed – in practice, there may be many others, made especially by novice programmers. On the one hand, the satisfactory result is that the code works and gives the desired results, but the problem arises when the incorrect code is handed over to another programmer, who will have to continue working on it. First, this is related to the need to understand the code received – to interpret what the other programmer had in mind. Programming is not just about writing code and making it work, the generated code should be clean, readable, and easy to maintain, so always write well-structured code.
Writing code without a plan
Many programmers, especially beginners, skip the stages of research, and project planning and start writing code right away. They don’t understand the requirements of the problem, and the constraints and don’t consider the different scenarios of the case they are coding (for example, what is the input and what should be the output, etc.). In the programming process, programmers spend only 10% of their time writing code. The rest of the time they devote on think, planning, researching, and discussing the entire project.
A novice programmer should base his work according to the scheme: think, research, plan, write, validate, and modify, so before writing code, do a few basic things to avoid problems or disasters at the production level. Accordingly, the following steps are recommended as part of planning the programming process, you should:
– familiarize yourself with the requirements and constraints of the problem at hand
– conduct research and experiments to find out which data structure is good for solving the problem. In this case, choose the best one.
– Design the program and make a preliminary working draft.
– choose the right data structure for the problem.
– think through and note down all corner cases for testing.
– divide problems into solvable parts.
Thinking you know everything
It’s an exciting and amazing feeling for beginners when their code starts working without any errors. After all, they put so much effort into learning how to code and finally managed to write a program that works. While doing so, it is important to remember that programming is a marathon in which there is no end line. Every day new technologies, frameworks, and many things appear in the world, so there is no end to learning to code. In doing so, one should not underestimate one’s capabilities, but at the same time, one should not overestimate them either. A programmer should stand firmly on the ground, explore more complex programming issues, and constantly learn. If a programmer spends his time with a more experienced specialist, he will undoubtedly find that they do not take a “know it all” attitude, they are constantly learning and discovering things, even with years of experience in the software development process.
No backup of the prepared project
There are many situations in which you can lose all the data you have collected. The customer will not usually be interested in the fact that the programmer lost all or part of the completed work because of the hard drive issues. What matters to such a person is the result and keeping the terms of cooperation. In this case, there are no excuses, so every programmer should get into the habit of regular backups. It’s also worth learning how to use source control (SVN or Git), and Github, or you should enlist the help of, for example, a tool like Dropbox, which is a cloud service that allows you to instantly save the work you’ve done.
Laziness
There is a huge difference between theory and practice when generating code. In programming, you should never neglect to practice the actual code. It’s easy to read a few lines of code or watch a few learning videos, but to avoid making mistakes or making less of them, you should practice. At first, the errors will be related to the missing semicolon, and curly brace, which will make it difficult to write loops, but to get rid of all these things, just try your hand at the code, practice it, catch inaccuracies, and do debugging.
Syntax error
A syntax error is like a spelling error, a grammatical error, or a basic typo. Computer software is unable to search for this type of error. Missing semicolons, extra parentheses, misplaced instructions, and misplaced capital letters are examples of syntax coding errors. Syntax errors are among the easiest to find and fix. This is because the compiler often provides the location of the error.
Run-time error
Run-time errors (also known as execution errors) are coding errors that occur when a programmer or user tries to run a program. A run-time coding error occurs when something confuses the computer and causes it to crash. An example would be an error resulting from instructions being given in the wrong order, based on a step that has not yet taken place. Another example could be related to the programmer asking the computer to do something impossible (a typical example is asking the computer to divide by zero). Another reason for a run-time error is when the user interacts with the program unexpectedly. Run-time errors are the type of errors that can affect users, preventing them from achieving what they want from the software. The key is proper technical support or an error reporting system.
Logical error
The most difficult type of error during coding to locate and fix is a logic error. With this type of error, there is no failure or helpful highlighting to indicate the problem. The program works but does not do what the programmer or user expects it to do. Programs with a logic error do not behave as expected. Because of this, logic errors make everything look like it works. It is written in real language and is an executable program. A logic error is only visible at the stage of using the program and is based on its behavior and output generation. Fixing a logic error may mean correcting the code or rewriting a few lines.
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