All right, I’m going through the lovely JavaScript first steps @ MDN web docs and next up is the guide on “What went wrong? Troubleshooting JavaScript”. Let’s write up some notes:

Check the syntax 🤦‍♀️

Syntax errors are spelling mistakes, mixed up lowercase / uppercase, or missing characters causing the script to fail. I will mostly get helpful error messages pointing to the code line.

  • TypeError: "x" is not a function — typically a misspelled function
  • TypeError: "x" is (not) "y" — hello undefined and null
  • SyntaxError: missing ; before statement — check your semicolons
  • SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list — close your parenthesis
  • …and so on. There’s a very long error reference!

Work through the logic 🙃

Logic errors are more difficult. I might not get any error messages, but there’s still something wrong so the script doesn’t work as intended. Add patience and go though the logic in the script.

Output text to the console 🔎

This is a function I can use for debugging. The parameter can be a message:

console.log('testing one two three');

…or an object! For example would console.log(randomNumber); let me cheat at the numbers guessing game in the tutorial. I can also use these other methods for more categories;

💁 console.info()   ⚠️ console.warn()   💔 console.error()

Cool! Feels like I should have learnt this before, but now is better than never.