Testing PL/SQL Code - Debugging PL/SQL Programs (Page 3 of 4 )
When you test a program, you find errors in your code. When you debug a program, you uncover the cause of an error and fix it. These are two very different processes and should not be confused. Once a program is tested, and bugs are uncovered, it is certainly the responsibility of the developer to fix those bugs. And so the debugging begins!
Many programmers find that debugging is by far the hardest part of programming. This difficulty often arises from the following factors:
Lack of understanding of the problem being solved by the program
Most programmers like to code. They tend to not like reading and understanding specifications, and will sometimes forgo this step so that they can quickly get down to writing code. The chance of a program meeting its requirements under these conditions is slim at best.
Poor programming practice
Programs that are hard to read (lack of documentation, too much documentation, inconsistent use of whitespace, bad choices for identifier names, etc.), programs that are not properly modularized, and programs that try to be too clever present a much greater challenge to debug than programs that are well designed and structured.
The program simply contains too many errors
Without the proper analysis and coding skills, your code will have a much higher occurrence of bugs. When you compile a program and get back five screens of compile errors, do you just want to scream and hide? It is easy to be so overwhelmed by your errors that you don’t take the organized, step-by-step approach needed to fix those errors.
Limited debugging skills
There are many different approaches to uncovering the causes of your problems. Some approaches only make life more difficult for you. If you have not been trained in the best way to debug your code, you can waste many hours, raise your blood pressure, and upset your manager.
The following sections review the debugging methods that you will want to avoid at all costs, and then offer recommendations for more effective debugging strategies.
Next: The Wrong Way to Debug >>
More Oracle Articles
More By O'Reilly Media
|
 This article is excerpted from chapter 20 of the book Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Fourth Edition, written by Steven Feuerstein and Bill Pribyl (O'Reilly; ISBN: 0596009771). Check it out today at your favorite bookstore. Buy this book now.
|
|
