Topic 6. Debugging and exception handling

Goal: become familiar with Visual Studio 2026 debugging tools and the .NET exception mechanism; learn to find logic errors using breakpoints, stepping, and debugger windows; master handling exceptions with try/catch/finally, throwing exceptions, and reporting errors through exit codes.

Lecture contents

1. Errors and the debugger — Types of errors · The Visual Studio debugger · Debugger windows · Conditional breakpoints and tracepoints
2. Debug.Assert and exception handling — The Debug class: WriteLine and Assert · Exceptions · The try/catch/finally statement
3. Throwing exceptions and strategy — Throwing exceptions · Unhandled exceptions and exit codes · When to use exceptions
4. Examples and common mistakes — Example programs · Common mistakes

Practice and review

• Practice — 3 worked examples with complete code and output
• Tasks — 30 variants, each with tasks at three difficulty levels
• Summary — conclusions, self-check questions, and useful links