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Software Engineering vocabulary · Programming Concepts

Undefined behavior

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In software engineering, undefined behavior means: Program behavior for which the language specification sets no requirements, typically because the code violates a rule of the language.

In Turkish: tanımsız davranış

How it is used

Common in low-level language reviews. It does not mean a predictable exception or merely an undocumented result.

Example sentences

  1. Accessing the freed object caused undefined behavior in the native extension.

    The language gives no reliable result for that invalid memory access.

  2. The optimized build exposed undefined behavior that the debug build seemed to tolerate.

    Appearing to work in one build does not make the invalid operation safe.

Common collocations

  • invoke undefined behavior
  • avoid undefined behavior
  • runtimeThe time when a program is actually running, as opposed to when it is written or compiled. Also the software environment that runs the code, such as Node.js.
  • pointerA value that refers to a memory location, allowing code to access an object or data stored at that location.

More terms: Programming Concepts

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