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9 Python Patterns That Made My Code Much Easier to Debug
I used to think debugging was mostly about getting better at reading error messages.
It isn’t.
At least, that isn’t where most of my debugging time used to go.
The real problem was usually the code itself.
A function did five different things. A variable changed meaning halfway through. An exception disappeared inside a broad try/except. A complicated expression failed somewhere in the middle, but I had no idea which part was responsible.
Then I’d add a few print() statements.
Run the program.
Read the output.
Add three more print() statements.
Run it again.
And eventually, I would find the bug.
But the process was slow because I was treating debugging as something I did after writing the code.
Over time, I started writing Python in ways that made bugs easier to locate in the first place.
These aren’t complicated design patterns. Most of them are small habits.
But they changed how I debug.
Here are nine Python patterns that made the biggest difference for me.
