Debugging is an essential part of system development, but it can also be frustrating, time-consuming, and costly. How can you minimize the errors in your code and fix them efficiently? When is the best time to debug your code? In this article, we will explore some tips and best practices for debugging your code at different stages of the development process.
The first and most obvious time to debug your code is as you write it. This means checking the syntax, logic, and functionality of your code before moving on to the next task or feature. You can use tools like IDEs, code editors, compilers, interpreters, linters, and formatters to help you spot and correct errors as you code. Debugging as you code can save you a lot of trouble later, as it prevents bugs from accumulating and propagating throughout your system.
This is the one that most developers do because when a function or method or piece of code is written, we want to test it immediately by invoking the function. This saves alot of time although you might not handle all edge cases
The second time to debug your code is after testing it. Testing is a crucial step to ensure the quality, performance, and security of your system. You can use different types of testing, such as unit testing, integration testing, functional testing, regression testing, and user acceptance testing, to verify that your system meets the requirements and expectations of your clients and users. Testing can reveal bugs that you might have missed or introduced during coding. You can use tools like debuggers, breakpoints, watchpoints, loggers, and profilers to help you locate and fix the bugs that emerge from testing.
In my opinion, this is the best option since developers can focus first on their code and leave debugging part after internal testing (test run by developer; unit testing). Moving back and forth between coding and unit testing is more time consuming and some developers might just lost focus compare to finishing on each phase (code, unit testing / debugging) one at a time
The best time to debug your code depends on the context and your development process. However, a good practice is to debug early and often throughout the development lifecycle. In an ideal scenario, a combination of these approaches is often recommended. Debugging early and continuously as you write code can help catch issues quickly. Additionally, thorough testing and debugging before deployment are essential to ensure a stable and reliable release. Finally, monitoring and debugging after deployment should be done to address any unforeseen issues that may arise in the live env. Debugging should be seen as an integral part of the devlpt process rather than a separate phase. It's a good practice to catch and fix issues as soon as possible.
The third time to debug your code is before deploying it. Deployment is the final stage of the development process, where you release your system to the production environment. This is the moment of truth, where your system will face the real-world conditions and challenges. You want to make sure that your system is as bug-free as possible before deploying it, as bugs can cause serious problems and damages to your system and your reputation. You can use tools like code review, code analysis, code coverage, and code quality to help you improve and optimize your code before deployment.
The fourth and last time to debug your code is after deploying it. Even if you have done everything right, you might still encounter bugs in your system after deployment. This is because some bugs are hard to detect or reproduce in the development or testing environments, and only manifest themselves in the production environment. You can use tools like monitoring, feedback, analytics, and reporting to help you identify and resolve the bugs that occur after deployment.
Debugging your code is not a one-time event, but a continuous process that requires attention and care throughout the system development lifecycle. By debugging your code at the right time and using the right tools, you can improve the quality, performance, and security of your system, and deliver a better product to your clients and users.
After deployment? I would assume the deployment is on staging or dev environment because it is same as production server but just for testing. Debugging can be done in this stage if there are some issues which was not picked up during development on local machine. Code logs would help in this regard