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Software Engineering vocabulary · Debugging and Troubleshooting

Error handling

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In software engineering, error handling means: Code that deals with things going wrong, such as a failed request or bad input, so the program can recover, retry or show a clear message instead of crashing.

In Turkish: hata yönetimi, hata işleme, hata yakalama

How it is used

Usually written with try/catch (or try/except) blocks: one piece of code 'throws' an exception and another 'catches' it. Reviewers comment on 'missing error handling' or ask you to 'handle the error'. Silently swallowing errors is a well-known bad habit.

Example sentences

  1. There's no error handling here: if the payment API is down, the whole page crashes.

  2. Let's add error handling around the file upload and show the user a friendly message.

Common collocations

  • add error handling
  • proper error handling
  • try/catch block
  • swallow an error
  • exceptionAn error event that interrupts the normal flow of a program. The code can catch and handle it, or it can make the program crash.
  • error messageText that a program shows when something goes wrong, saying what failed and sometimes why, for example 'File not found' or 'Connection refused'.
  • crashTo stop working suddenly because of an error, so that the program closes or stops responding. Also a noun: 'a crash'.
  • edge caseAn unusual situation at the limits of what a program expects, such as an empty list, a very long name or a date like 29 February.

More terms: Debugging and Troubleshooting

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