My first python script crashed and burned on a Tuesday

I spent 3 hours building a simple web scraper to pull weather data for my city, but when I ran it the console threw a syntax error right at line 7. Turns out I forgot a closing bracket and the whole thing just stopped mid-run. Has anyone else had a tiny typo ruin a whole project and how do you catch those easier?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin69225d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain so much. I once spent an entire Sunday debugging a script that just wouldn't run only to find out I had a single extra space in a variable name. It's always the stupidest little thing that bricks everything, right? What helped me was turning on my editor's linting tool it catches those missing brackets and stuff before I even hit run. Also, I started running my code every few lines instead of writing the whole thing first, makes it way easier to spot where things go wrong. Your mileage may vary but those little mistakes still get me sometimes, don't beat yourself up over it.

ryan36925d ago

I mean, I kinda see it differently. That Sunday debugging thing sounds rough with the space, but I honestly think running code every few lines can slow you down more than it helps, especially if you're in that flow state where everything is clicking. Like, I tried that approach once and ended up spending way more time starting and stopping than I did actually building anything useful. For me, taking a break and coming back with fresh eyes usually spots those dumb little typos faster than any linting tool. Maybe it's just my messy brain, but I'd rather write a solid chunk and then hunt for the one stupid mistake, you know?

victor_jones9924d ago

My buddy spent two hours chasing a bug that turned out to be a lowercase letter instead of uppercase.