When you’re studying programming, from time to time you’re bound to end up confronted with a problem that feels infuriatingly difficult or even impossible. Don’t let it get to you though; quite frankly it is normal to end up having to tackle mind-bending problems when you write code – and many professional programmers still find that from time to time they’re faced with them.
The trick to being able to solve these problems is to know what to do when you encounter them. By following these tips – you should at least have a place to start:
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Examine the logic
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At the end of the day, programming is really all about logic and so going back to the drawing board and looking at the underlying logic behind the code is a good starting point. Once you’re certain the logic is fine, you can then troubleshoot the code itself to figure out why it isn’t acting the way it should.
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Divide and conquer
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If your programming problem has to do with an extensive amount of code, you may want to divide it up into separate segments and test each independently to see if everything works. Then reassemble it all step-by-step while testing it along the way too.
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Sleep on it (or do something else for a while)
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When all else fails, deciding to ‘sleep on it’ may actually work. Make no mistake, this shouldn’t be used as an excuse to procrastinate – but sometimes taking some time off and clearing your head by doing something else and then going back to the problem could actually help.
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Find answers online
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Some of the problems you’ve encountered may have been encountered by other programmers in the past too (in fact, it is a safe bet that they have), so going online and trying to find answers could help. If nothing else it may help spark a few new ideas too.
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Try ‘dirty’ fixes
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Sometimes a problem can’t be solved easily right away but there may be a small ‘dirty’ fix that you can use which you know is inefficient and not entirely proper but gets the job done. Using it initially could help you work past the problem until you figure out how to fix it.
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Get expert help
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Consulting expert programmers to on how to solve the problem that you’re facing would definitely be useful. There are many ways you could get the help you need, but if you want it to be reliable and fast then go here for additional reading about programming help.
Since you’re studying programming, you need to be prepared to encounter numerous problems while you’re studying – and after too. The faster you start to learn how to cope with and tackle these problems, the better off you’ll be in the long run. Of course there is at least one option that should always work.
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