Using AI to Debug File Errors
File operations fail for predictable reasons — wrong paths, permission issues, encoding problems. AI assistants excel at identifying these common mistakes because they've seen thousands of similar errors.
Common File Errors
When working with files, you'll encounter these errors repeatedly:
- FileNotFoundError — The file doesn't exist at the specified path
- PermissionError — You can't read or write the file
- UnicodeDecodeError — The file's encoding doesn't match what you specified
- IsADirectoryError — You tried to open a folder as a file
Each has typical causes that AI can quickly identify.
How to Ask AI for Help
When you hit a file error, give the AI:
- The exact error message
- The code that caused it
- What you expected to happen
Example prompt:
I'm getting this error:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'data/users.csv'
My code:
with open("data/users.csv", "r") as f:
contents = f.read()
The file definitely exists. What's wrong?
The AI might identify that your current working directory isn't what you think, or suggest checking the exact path.
Path Problems
"The file exists but Python can't find it" is extremely common. AI can help you:
My file is at /Users/alex/projects/myapp/data.txt
I'm running my script from /Users/alex/projects/myapp/src/
Why does open("data.txt") fail?
AI will explain that relative paths start from where you run the script, not where the script file lives, and suggest using ../data.txt or an absolute path.
Encoding Issues
When you see UnicodeDecodeError, ask:
What does this error mean?
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x92 in position 15
How do I fix it?
AI will explain that the file uses a different encoding (likely Windows-1252) and show you how to specify it:
with open("data.txt", "r", encoding="cp1252") as f:
contents = f.read()
Building Debugging Intuition
Over time, you'll recognize these patterns yourself. AI accelerates this learning by explaining not just the fix, but why the error occurred. Pay attention to these explanations — they build the intuition that makes you a better debugger.
Questions to Ask AI
- "Why am I getting FileNotFoundError when the file exists?"
- "What does PermissionError mean and how do I fix it?"
- "How do I find out what encoding a file uses?"
- "Why does my path work on Mac but not Windows?"