corner case : Java Glossary

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corner case
Corner cases are the bane of computer programming. They are usually where you find bugs. Very often in processing a file, the first and last records have to be specially processed in some same. These would not be called corner cases, since the code is exercised every time you run the programs. Corner cases would include: Normally you write your code for the ordinary case, then when you are done check if the corner cases work too. If they don’t and your code requires all manner of special case fudging, chances are you can change the basic algorithm so most of the corner case code comes out in the wash without special handling. Sometimes you can deal with a freakish case entirely separately so it does not pollute the main logic, slowing down usual case processing.

Even the famous programmers can be thrown for a loop by corner cases. A corner case bug in binary search took two decades to be discovered.

average: how even simple code fails on corner cases
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