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Spent 6 hours tracking down a missing semicolon in Python
I was working on a simple loop for a project and kept getting an error that made no sense. After 6 hours of checking indentation, variable names, and logic, I finally realized I left out a semicolon in a line of inline code. On one hand, I feel like a total beginner for missing something so basic. On the other, tools like linters should catch this faster. Has anyone else lost huge chunks of time to something this small? What's your record for the longest debugging session over one tiny mistake?
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claire95812d ago
Wait, does a linter even catch missing semicolons in Python? I thought semicolons were optional in Python and only used for putting multiple statements on one line. If you're writing inline code, maybe the issue is more about how you structured that line rather than the semicolon itself. Python's whole thing is being readable without them, so getting stuck on a semicolon feels like fighting the language instead of letting it help you. Maybe the real lesson is to stop trying to write Python like it's JavaScript or C++.
I think people spend too much time blaming tiny typos when the real problem is their workflow. Six hours on a semicolon means you weren't using print statements or a debugger to isolate the error. You were just staring at the screen hoping it would fix itself. Sometimes these posts feel like humble brags about how long you struggled instead of actually learning from the experience.
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fionagibson12d ago
Claire958 is absolutely right that this whole thing is more about workflow than a typo. I mean, six hours on a semicolon in Python? That's not a debugging session, that's a staring contest with your screen. @claire958 the real takeaway here is how you approach finding bugs, not the bug itself. Using print statements or even a simple debugger would have caught that issue in minutes, not hours. People get so caught up in the struggle story that they miss the chance to actually learn something useful. How many times do we have to relearn that staring at code doesn't fix it?
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