Debugging and profiling: Difference between revisions

An important step in the software development process, particularly for compiled languages like Fortran and C/C++, concerns the use of a program called a debugger to detect and identify the origin of runtime errors (e.g. memory leaks, floating point exceptions and so forth) so that they can be eliminated. Once the program's correctness is assured, a further step is profiling the software. This involves the use of another software tool, a profiler, determine what percentage of the total execution time each section of the source code is responsible for when run with a representative test case. A profiler can give information like how many times a particular function is called, which other functions are calling it and how many milli-seconds of time each invocation of this function costs on average.