You should remember all the built-in methods and their usage in a language

Most beginner developers believe that they need to remember every detail of a language to code.

The short answer. No

And the long answer. No need

1. Our job is to solve problems using code. And that of an IDE is to simplify our lives. So, let’s delegate the task of remembering all the inbuilt functions to an IDE, shall we?

2. There’s a reason why StackOverflow and Google are our best friends during office hours (No. Not during the lunch hour). With all the documentation available online, why do we even have to “remember-them-all” at all?

3. What happens when you use the same functions over and over while you code? You start remembering them. That becomes your vocabulary. And if the function names follow some specific format, it’s easier to remember as well as to search for possible functions.

4. Understand what the built-in methods do. That is fundamental.

5. Use a good editor that provides an auto-completion feature for your programming language.

6. If you do not understand which built-in method to use, use Google to learn different options available.

Unless you are Josh Long, you will probably never remember all the built-in methods — and it is completely alright. I don’t think even he remembers all the methods he needs to use in his code. We are not in the 1990s, where you have to code in a notepad or command prompt.

When newbie programmers look at the thousand lines of code they think that they need to remember all the syntax in a programming language to be proficient. This is common misconception beginners have about programming. Beginners waste their time in going back to all the lessons multiple times until or unless they don’t memorize all the syntax of a programming language. We need to mention that it’s not necessary to remember all the syntax and it’s also impossible to memorize all the syntax of a programming language. No programmer remembers every single library function. We often rely on documentation or IDE’s auto-completion feature to recall the exact function signatures.

A programmer simply knows most of the important functions simply due to repeated use. You cannot memorize the names of every human on this planet. But you do know the names of your friends whom you meet regularly. You also know their likes and dislikes. A programmer also starts remembering the behaviour of each function if he uses those functions regularly. Another good thing about standard libraries in every programming language is that it is “standard” and thus tends to be very consistent. If you know a certain subset of functions that work on a certain set of data, you can easily predict the functions that will work on similar types of data. For example, Lists has a function called size() in Java which returns the number of elements in the lists. Now while working with sets, you can easily predict that sets will also have a function called size() which will return the number of elements in them.

In programming, concepts are more important than syntax and after some experience when you write the same code, again and again, you eventually start getting the syntax at your fingers. Once you get the concept, work on projects and take the help of google if you don’t know something. When you keep writing code, after some time you realize that your brain automatically starts getting syntax without putting effort into memorizing it. In programming, you should know where to find the answer and how to use the online resources (StackOverflow, GeeksforGeeks, W3Schools, Mozilla developer network, etc.), libraries, tools, IDEs, text editors to avoid memorizing the things in programming.

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