Debugging your code is a skill of its own. Here is a list of debugging techniques that you might want to try:
- read the code
- read the error message
- inspect variables with
print(x) - inspect the type of variables with
print(type(x))
- take a break
- reproduce the bug
- reproduce the bug with minimal input data
- drop assertions in your code
- clean up your code
- write more tests
- explain the problem to someone else
- step through the code in an interactive debugger
- google the error message
- sleep over it
- ask for a code review
- write down what the problem is
- draw a formal description of your program logic (flowchart, state diagram
- draw a formal description of your data structure (class diagram, ER-diagram)
- background reading on the library / algorithm you are implementing