Day 11 - Types of Programming Errors

Day 11: Types of Programming Errors

Review and Week 3 Introduction (3 minutes)
- Review key concepts from Weeks 1-2
- Introduce Week 3 focus on errors and project work
Warm-up Activity (5 minutes)
- Show students a program with an obvious error
- Ask them to identify what's wrong and how to fix it
- Discuss different approaches to finding the error

Lecture: Different Types of Errors (12 minutes)
- Explain syntax errors:
  - Incorrect grammar/structure of code
  - Usually caught by compiler/interpreter
  - Examples: missing semicolons, mismatched parentheses
- Explain logic errors:
  - Code runs but produces incorrect results
  - Program doesn't do what was intended
  - Examples: incorrect algorithm, wrong formula
- Explain run-time errors:
  - Errors that occur during program execution
  - Program crashes or terminates unexpectedly
  - Examples: division by zero, accessing invalid memory
- Explain overflow errors:
  - Values exceed the allowed range
  - Examples: integer overflow, stack overflow
Demo: Examples of Each Error Type (10 minutes)
- Show examples of each error type in code
- Demonstrate how each error manifests:
  - Error messages for syntax errors
  - Incorrect output for logic errors
  - Program crashes for run-time errors
  - Unexpected behavior for overflow errors
- Explain the consequences of each error type
Lab: Identify Error Types (10 minutes)
- Provide students with several code segments containing errors
- For each segment, students must:
  - Identify the type of error
  - Explain how they recognized it
  - Describe the impact on program execution
  - Suggest a fix for the error
- Review answers as a class

Error Identification Worksheet (7 minutes)
- Students complete a worksheet with various code segments
- For each segment, they identify the error type and explain their reasoning
- Include examples of all error types covered
Preview Next Lesson (3 minutes)
- Explain that next class will focus on error correction techniques
- Ask students to think about strategies they use to find and fix errors

Provide more subtle and complex errors to identify
Ask them to create examples of different error types
Explore more specialized error types (e.g., boundary errors, concurrency issues)