What is the purpose of error handling in programming?

The purpose of error handling in programming is to manage situations when errors occur. This involves anticipating potential errors and implementing strategies to address them, ensuring that the program can respond appropriately instead of crashing or producing incorrect results. Effective error handling allows developers to catch and process errors gracefully, providing users with helpful feedback while maintaining the overall stability of the application. By systematically checking for errors and implementing corrective measures, programmers can enhance the reliability of their software and improve the user experience.

In programming, errors can arise from various sources, such as invalid user input, hardware failures, or resource unavailability. By having a robust error handling mechanism, a program can log errors, attempt retries, or display informative messages to users, thus making it more resilient and user-friendly.