Coding is one of the professions with a profound impact. Programming enabled humans to land on the moon; it revolutionized businesses, created millions of jobs, and digitized every aspect of our daily lives.
However, programming has its fair share of pitfalls that result in huge losses of money and resources. These pitfalls emanate from simple, but bad programming habits. In this article, we’ll discuss five tips that would make your program error-free.
So let’s dive in right away:
1. Avoid copy-pasting/plagiarizing code from websites: However, it is entirely normal to search for any problem on Stack Overflow, if you get stuck somewhere. Similarly, it is also reasonable to copy code when you are learning. But a blindly copy-pasting snippet of codes from a website is a bad practice.
It hinders you from realizing your full potential. It is very enticing to take a shortcut, but it would hurt you in the long run. You would become so reliant on online help that you won’t be able to stand on your feet as a programmer. Similarly, you may not find the exact code in the first place.
2. Shun cluttered coding: It seems crappy and difficult to read. It tells about your personality too. Clear, clean, and structured code with proper indentation shows clarity of thoughts and concepts. Similarly, if someone else reads your code, they would appreciate the style and ease of reading.

3. Comment more: Commenting in the programming is there for a reason. It is beneficial not only for others when they read your code, but for you as well. If you are reading your code after some time, you may forget why you wrote that function and why this variable is local or global.
Further, in big companies, teams comprising several programmers work on the same code simultaneously. It almost becomes mandatory to comment so your colleagues can understand it.
4. Bad naming practice: The variables, functions, and classes, etc., should be named properly. They should be meaningful, e.g., instead of naming variables x, y, a, and b, using variables such as ageStudent and feeStudent. Besides easy identification, they won’t create confusion when you are on line number 1,664.
5. Network with programmers more: This is such a massive mistake in the time of social media. The online community will help you if you are facing any obstacles in programming. Besides, it would help you find new and better job opportunities. Many programmers say that they have found a job through networking.
Similarly, it is almost an ethical responsibility to give back to your community. If you have successfully solved glitches in the code or discovered something new, you should tell other programmers. They would love you for this kindness.
How many of these bad practices do you do during coding? Let us know in the comments. If you have something to add, feel free to communicate.

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