Find bugs faster using assertions.

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Welcome! I post videos that help you learn to program and become a more confident software developer. I cover beginner-to-advanced systems topics ranging from network programming, threads, processes, operating systems, embedded systems and others. My goal is to help you get under-the-hood and better understand how computers work and how you can use them to become stronger students and more capable professional developers.

About me: I'm a computer scientist, electrical engineer, researcher, and teacher. I specialize in embedded systems, mobile computing, sensor networks, and the Internet of Things. I teach systems and networking courses at Clemson University, where I also lead the PERSIST research lab.

More about me and what I do:

In case you want more information about asserts.

In C.

Java.

Python

Ruby



***

Welcome! I post videos that help you learn to program and become a more confident software developer. I cover beginner-to-advanced systems topics ranging from network programming, threads, processes, operating systems, embedded systems and others. My goal is to help you get under-the-hood and better understand how computers work and how you can use them to become stronger students and more capable professional developers.

About me: I'm a computer scientist, electrical engineer, researcher, and teacher. I specialize in embedded systems, mobile computing, sensor networks, and the Internet of Things. I teach systems and networking courses at Clemson University, where I also lead the PERSIST research lab.

More about me and what I do:

To Support the Channel:
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Want me to review your code?

You can also find more info about code reviews here.

[heefbrz]

I just program in dark mode. Light attracts bugs.

[zrodger]

Working on a new project, whose code lends itself to assertions. Assertions everywhere! Everythings working, I'm solving problems, until bang, a really old assertion fails! Worked exactly liked it should! Looking forward to tomorrow to see why it failed! Good video!

[ryszardsinius]

That was very informative. Thanks, quality content.

[conorc]

fantastic explanation, thanks so much!

[simonmaracine]

Wow! I needed this. A few days ago I was thinking if I should use an assertion to check for something and catch that AssertionError (it was Python), or should I raise another error. But after a few minutes of thinking, I left the assertion and the handling for that assertion without thinking that when I freeze the program with optimization (-O or -OO), I won't have that assertion which was needed for some error checking. I just corrected that by raising instead a RunTimeError and catching that.
I just subscribed, because I saw many of your videos and I like them.

[founderofisis]

What books do you recommend for defensive C++ programming?

[steinmil]

Thanks for the informative stuff on C !

Can you have 2 version of your source code ? One with assertions and one without ? You would accomplish this by just deleting the assertion statement lines all together no ? or can you just use undefine on library functions as well

[mohammadeshghi]

Thank you so much for the video. I have a question which I couldn't find an answer for it. I didn't study computer science, but I love programming. Actually, in my field, not knowing programming leads you to trouble. I learned to programme by myself. My question is that how can I gain a complete knowledge of programming (concepts and principles)? I have this question because although I've been doing programming, but I recently realized about the assertions :( . Do you have any suggestion about how can I get the hang of programming (i.e. knowing all concepts and principles)?

[anthonynjoroge]

To be more technical, assert() never works if and only if the macro NDEBUG is defined.
Certain compiler options #undef this macro hence breaking any assertion statements.Thus assertions should never be used in release code.

[rebecca.jennifer]

I'm a little confused... If assertions should not be used to ensure code runs correctly, then when should they be used? Are they only inserted to be used for testing?

[casperes]

In a world that didn't have YouTube... Imagine the sentence "If you liked the video, please consider liking it"

[andreadws]

Yep, I have a segment fault in code and I don't know where it is.

[Ignas_]

In my opinion, it's simpler to write your own assert macro (e.g. #define Assert(expr) if(!(expr)){ int *x = NULL; x[10]=10; }).

[MAP]

You disturbingly look like Clint from the Corridor Crew mixed with Matthew McConaughey

[amyej]

As someone who needs quiet to really focus and take in information, the background music when you were talking made it nearly impossible for me to take this in. Maybe this is good for some people, I don't know.

[OlliS]

Better use a language that has built-in data types like vectors or lists.

[eyesopen]

assert checks won't be in production.. So all you've done is covered up errors that can still exist in your prod deployment.. asserts suck.

[UniverseGames]

afl-fuzz: ../Program.cpp:254: static Program* Program::deserialize(uint8_t*, uint32_t): Assertion `pos == len' failed.
Aborted How to fix such error message>