A number of techniques are used to debug the software in order to find cause of defect at different stages of debugging process. Few techniques are as follows:

The brute force debugging is probably the most common and least efficient method for finding the cause of a software error.

In this technique the program is loaded with print statements to print the intermediate values with the hope that some of the printed values will help to identify the statement with error.

People who user thinking rather than a set of helps, exhibit superior performance. This approach becomes more systematic with the use of a symbolic debugger because values of different variables can be easily examined.

Backtracking analysis of program involves tracing the program backward from the location of failure message in order to identify the region of faulty code. A detailed study of region is then conducted to find the cause of defect.

This is a process that locates the data, organizes it and devises a hypothesis. This hypothesis must then be proved. A clue structure may be used for what, where, when and to what extent for categories of Is not.

Deduction may also be used as debugging technique. Determine the possible causes and use data to eliminate causes. Refine the remaining cause into a hypothesis and prove it.

In this technique, a list of causes that could have contributed to the error symptom is prepared and tests are carried out to eliminate each cause. Software fault free analysis technique may be used to identify the errors from the error symptom.

This type  of debugging involves using test cases. Two types of test cases areas follows:

1.    Cases that expose a previously undetected effort.
2.    Cases that provide useful information in debugging to located an error.
For an undetected error cases it tends to cover many conditions per test case. But test cases for locating a specific error cover a single condition for each test case.

This debugging technique is similar to backtracking. In this technique, the overall search space is first divided in the program slices so that the search is confined to the program slice only.

These techniques of debugging are also supported by a number of tools and techniques e.g., interpreters, sophisticated editors, break-point debuggers, case-based tracking print statement etc.

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