Simple Errors

Lesson 1.2: Simple Errors

Now that we have explored how to print things and comments, let's move on to some error debugging.

Errors can be classified into two types:

1. Compile-time("syntax errors".)

2.Run-time("glitches")

Compile-Time errors

Compile-time errors are errors caused by not following the syntax of a program correctly. Syntax is the grammar of a programming language.

Let's look at two examples of compile-time errors, the first one is a typing error and the second is a syntax error.

Look at the below example. Can you find the error?

#The one with a typing error

print("Hello World)

This returns:

SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal

• SyntaxError is the type of error that we are dealing with.
• EOL stands for End Of Line, it simply means that the interpreter reached the end of the line.
• string is a data type consisting of both letters and numbers. Click on this link to learn more about Strings
• literal is what we fed into the print() function.

The error is the closing of the double quotations as you will see in 1.3. Don't panic if you don't understand how strings work.

On to the second one:

#With bad syntax

print(Hello World)

This returns:

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

This is also the use of quotation marks.

Run-time Errors

So, Run-time errors are "glitches" in the program. For instance, it can be a security loophole, a logical error, or an infinite loop. Let's look at an example: (Psst! switch to 1.3 for better understanding of the program)

#A program with a run time error

print(1/(1-1))

This returns:

ZeroDivisionError: division by zero

implying that there is an error at run-time, where there is an error because there is a glitch in the program as there is a zero division error.

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