The OILER Method: A Framework for Debugging

The method has five steps:

1. Orient yourself.
2. Investigate the symptoms.
3. Localize the cause.
4. Experiment with fixes.
5. Reflect on what you’ve learned.

This is the OILER method, and it begins when your program behaves in a way you didn’t expect. Perhaps it throws an error message midway through execution. Or it runs in its entirety but returns an output that just doesn’t seem right or produces an image that is not what you wanted.

The OILER method helps you reconcile what you intend to do with code, what the code in front of you actually does, and what the programming language will allow you to do.

Let’s go through the steps together.