Book Image

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

By : Joakim Wassberg
4 (1)
Book Image

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

4 (1)
By: Joakim Wassberg

Overview of this book

Learning how to code has many advantages, and gaining the right programming skills can have a massive impact on what you can do with your current skill set and the way you advance in your career. This book will be your guide to learning computer programming easily, helping you overcome the difficulties in understanding the major constructs in any mainstream programming language. Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners starts by taking you through the building blocks of any programming language with thorough explanations and relevant examples in pseudocode. You'll understand the relationship between computer programs and programming languages and how code is executed on the computer. The book then focuses on the different types of applications that you can create with your programming knowledge. You'll delve into programming constructs, learning all about statements, operators, variables, and data types. As you advance, you'll see how to control the flow of your programs using control structures and reuse your code using functions. Finally, you'll explore best practices that will help you write code like a pro. By the end of this book, you'll be prepared to learn any programming language and take control of your career by adding coding to your skill set.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Computer Programs and Computer Programming
6
Section 2: Constructs of a Programming Language
7
Chapter 5: Sequence – The Basic Building Block of a Computer Program
14
Section 3: Best Practices for Writing High-Quality Code
Appendix B: Dictionary
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong – Bugs and Exceptions

Writing software can be hard, and when we write it, we will make errors. We will, unintentionally, introduce bugs to our application.

Some of them will be rather trivial to find and fix, but some can set us off on a wild goose chase through the code where we try to understand the reasons as to why things are not working the way we expect them to.

It is not unheard of that people spend days, and sometimes weeks, attempting to track down a bug. To be able to find bugs in our applications, we will need to understand what kinds exist and how they affect the way our applications run. This chapter will help us recognize them.

In this chapter, you will learn about the following topics:

  • Understanding software bugs
  • Finding bugs using a debugger
  • Working with exceptions
  • Handling exceptions

In this chapter, we will also talk a bit about variables and data types. Look back at Chapter 6, Working with...