Debugging tools

301.18 IDE Skills

IDE Skills — Note 4 of 4

Stepping + watch tools.

What you need to know

IDEs offer debugging tools: breakpoints pause the program at a specific line, stepping runs one line at a time, and watch windows show variable values as the program runs.

What to know

Breakpoint: click the line margin to set a pause point
Step Over (`F10`): run one line, skip into functions
Step Into (`F11`): go inside a function call
Watch: add a variable to see its value update live
Use these to trace logic errors without print()

Code examples

Debugging workflow

python

# 1. Set breakpoint on suspicious line
# 2. Run in debug mode
# 3. Step through line by line
# 4. Watch variable values change
# 5. Find where the value goes wrong

total = 0
for i in range(5):    # ← set breakpoint here
    total += i        # watch 'total' and 'i'

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Specification notes for programming are in Paper 2.