Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science

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Prepare for the AP Computer Science Exam. Study with flashcards and multiple-choice questions. Each question comes with detailed explanations and hints. Excel in your exam!

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What is a logical error in programming?

A mistake in syntax.
Incorrectly setting up the program to process.
A visual representation error.
A type-checking error.

The correct answer is: Incorrectly setting up the program to process.

A logical error in programming refers to a mistake in the underlying logic of the program that leads to unintended behavior or incorrect results, even though the program syntactically appears correct and runs without errors. This type of error occurs when the intended algorithm or logic does not align with the problem being solved. For example, if a program is designed to calculate an average and mistakenly sums the numbers without dividing them by the count of numbers, it will execute successfully but produce an incorrect average. This highlights that the program processes the data incorrectly based on its intended logic. This differentiates logical errors from syntax errors, which are problems with the code that prevent it from compiling or running at all, or type-checking errors, which occur when there are incompatible data types being used. Logical errors don't manifest until the program is executed, making them often harder to detect and debug.