Skip to main content
CS Teaching Tips

Main navigation

  • Browse All Tips
  • Tags
  • 3D
  • About
  • Rate Tips
  • Tip Sheets

When teaching null dereferences, show a call that dereferences a null pointer in a debugger to give students a snapshot of what is happening.

Share When teaching null dereferences, show a call that dereferences a null pointer in a debugger to give students a snapshot of what is happening. with FacebookShare When teaching null dereferences, show a call that dereferences a null pointer in a debugger to give students a snapshot of what is happening. with Twitter
  • Make sure students understand when and why something should be null before showing students dereferencing a null pointer in a debugger.
  • Seeing the impact of this call can help students understand the impact of null pointers.

More about this tip

Tags

  • Programming Concepts
  • Development Methods
External Source

Interview with Walt Schilling

Other Tips By
Other Tips By Walt Schilling

Similar tips

Have students keep a “bug collection” in a journal so they can more easily recognize and eliminate bugs in the future.
Know and point out to students the limits of Khan Academy’s JavaScript environment, which does not allow some important topics (like variable scoping) to be demonstrated.
Show students what code looks like with and without new programming constructs (e.g., methods, Objects, inheritance, loops, switch statements) to motivate the reasons for using new concepts.

For more information or to report a bug, contact us at admin@csteachingtips.org. Built with Bootstrap. Powered by Drupal.

Privacy Policy