Testing

• Normal data is met by the system in normal operation.
• Abnormal data is data that the system is not expecting. The system should reject it.
• Boundary data is data that falls on either side of a boundary.
• Extreme data is data that is at the extremes of acceptable data.
• Alpha testing is early testing that takes place during the programming of a system.
• Beta testing is formal testing once the system has been completed.
• Debugging is a general term for systematically searching for problems in programs that are not working properly and fixing them.
• Logical errors are result in code that runs but produces unexpected results.
• Syntax errors are mistakes made in the code equivalent to spelling and punctuation mistakes in English.
• Runtime errors are problems with the code that only become evident when the program is run, for example, attempting to divide by zero.
• Overflow errors occur when the data passed to a variable is too large to be held by the data type selected.
• Diagnostics is the systematic process of trying to diagnose what is wrong with a problem.
• Trace tables are a way to test and find bugs in programs. A table is constructed to keep track of the values held in variables as a program is stepped through line by line.
• Breakpoints are points that are inserted into the code by the programmer. They will cause the system to run one line of code at a time once the breakpoint is reached. Helps the programmer to track the value of variables as the program executes.
• It is important to test systems to ensure they will perform as expected.
• IDEs identify syntax errors and runtime errors. IDEs also provide useful tools to help debug logical errors by providing the ability to step through code and add breakpoints.