Errors, testing and debugging
Programs rarely work first time. Testing runs a program with chosen test data to find errors; debugging means identifying and fixing errors in the code. Paper 1 asks one error question most years: breaking the rules of the language, such as var x, y with no data type, is a syntax error.
By the end of this page you can
- Choose normal, boundary and abnormal test data
- Name the main ways to find and fix errors
- Tell syntax, logic and run-time errors apart
- Answer error and testing questions
Goals tick themselves off as you try the activities below.
Photo: Courtesy of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, VA, 1988, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped, resized, JPEG q72.
In 1947 engineers found a moth stuck in a relay of their computer and taped it in the log. Errors have been called bugs ever since.
How often it shows up in past papers
Paper 1 counts come from our past-paper bank of CSEC Information Technology Paper 1s. The last-5 row shows how often it came up in the five most recent papers.
Inside this topic
- Test and debugLocked
- Three errorsLocked
- Key termsLocked
- Test yourselfmarkedLocked
- Practise for real · 5 past questionsLocked