Shoutout to the error message that actually helped me fix a bug

I was coding my first Python project at a coffee shop in Austin last Wednesday when my script kept crashing with a 'KeyError'. I almost ignored it, but I finally googled what it meant and realized I had a typo in my dictionary key. After fixing that one character, the whole program ran smoothly for the first time. Has anyone else had a moment where reading the error message carefully saved you hours of frustration?

2 comments

2 Comments

patriciareed7d ago

KeyError is definitely one of those errors that looks scary until you realize it's just telling you the key doesn't exist. But I have to push back a little on saying you "almost ignored it." Error messages are literally the program talking to you, trying to help. Ignoring them is like having someone point at a fire and saying "nah, I'll figure it out myself." The real problem is most tutorials skip over teaching people how to actually read error tracebacks, so new coders just see red text and panic. Once you learn to look at the line number and the specific message, debugging gets way easier. That one character fix you found is exactly the kind of thing that makes you feel like a detective who solved the case.

nathanj567d ago

Patricia, I totally get what you're saying about error messages being helpful. It's like when my car's check engine light came on and I just kept driving for two weeks thinking it was nothing, then my alternator died in a parking lot and I had to call a tow truck. That was a whole thing. Anyways, when I first started coding, I had this habit of closing the terminal as soon as I saw red, like if I looked away it would fix itself. Line numbers were my big breakthrough too. Once I stopped ignoring them, I found a typo in a dictionary key that was literally one letter off, and it felt like winning a medal.