What do you do when you spend 6 or 7 hours and can't get code that works. Had people try but I am still stuck.

Hi Randy,

Interesting question. Sometimes you have no one to go to, or you can't get an immediate answer. Here are the things that I've found help me:

1. Re-read (or re-watch) the relevant material to see if you're understanding it right.
2. Comment out suspect code until your program actually works.
3. Print-to-screen all the values that might help you figure out the problem. (i.e., print out a whole array if you have to).
4. Take a break and come back tomorrow.

When I look back at all the ways I've resolved these type of really difficult bits of code, I notice that if I had gone in that order I would probably have solved the problem way faster.

Forums are also a great way to get help. Team Treehouse seems a lot more friendly than other forums; no one here cares if the question has been answered in the past. (On other forums it seems like you can hardly post a question without someone flagging your post as a duplicate.)

Hang in there, take a break, and keep moving forward. Things really do get easier when you're able to step back from the problem.

What are you coding?

Whenever I get frustrated with some code that doesn't work I go to Odesk and outsource it. Then once I find a qualified contractor to complete the job, I check their code and see what they did. Sometimes I'll even ask them to describe what they did through skype. But be careful with odesk, there are alot of poor coders out there, usually you'll get 1 bad coder for every 4 that you hire. And try not to give them full access to your web servers. I usually only set them up with a ftp account and a separate directory. I've learned quite a bit of PHP this way and for $5-$10 per job or lesson.

What works for me is to leave the problem and move on. Come back to it when you are ready and you are well rested. After 6 hours of coding you will not come up with anything as you are just trying over and over again something that doesn't work.