Hand Execution

Hand execution is the process of manually following the instructions in code as the computer does. For this you need some code you are wanting to explore, and a piece of paper. Watch the following video to see how to perform this process.

Hand execution…

• gets you to follow the instructions that exist within the program.
• uses your piece of paper to track values in variables.
• does not need to show intermediate values for all expressions.
• helps you see how an algorithm works.

Tip

Keep the output simple. You want to create boxes for the variables on your page, and then update these as they change. You can take notes on the side for yourself, but the main thing is to step through it as the computer does. This will help you see what the algorithm does, and how it does it.

Example

The following image shows an example of hand execution. The main thing is to capture the variables as boxes on your page, and use these to keep track of the values that change as the program runs.