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One character error

created by Agthorr

(idea) by Agthorr (2.7 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Wed Apr 12 2000 at 2:08:52

A particular type of programming mistake that can be incredibly difficult to find and fix. Since the error consists of only a single incorrect character, it can be extremely simple for the human eye to glance over without noticing.

An example in C:

int foo = 10;
while (foo);
{
   printf ("%d", foo--);
}

(idea) by MinaInerz (4.2 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Wed Apr 12 2000 at 2:35:48

I agree. I almost always put semicolons after my looping statements. Luckily, compilers are smart enough to tell me just how brain dead I am for making the same typing mistake about 50 times in my program. However, my biggest problem isn't the dread one character error problem. I usually rename my variables accidentally in my head, and it usually takes me hours to figure out exactly what it was that I did wrong.

For example, in Perl (note that the variables are usually not on the same screen):
$num_to_start = 5;
while ($num_to_start)
{
print $number_to_start++;
}

printable version
chaos

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