Code Complete, 2nd Edition

Key Points

• Production code should handle errors in a more sophisticated way than "garbage in, garbage out."

• Defensive-programming techniques make errors easier to find, easier to fix, and less damaging to production code.

• Assertions can help detect errors early, especially in large systems, high-reliability systems, and fast-changing code bases.

• The decision about how to handle bad inputs is a key error-handling decision and a key high-level design decision.

• Exceptions provide a means of handling errors that operates in a different dimension from the normal flow of the code. They are a valuable addition to the programmer's intellectual toolbox when used with care, and they should be weighed against other error-processing techniques.

• Constraints that ...