Redundant code

Imagine you are making a puzzle and you need to put together a picture. You have many small pieces of the picture and it's your job to put them together. Some of the pieces may look similar, but they have a different place in the picture. Now imagine you accidentally duplicate one of the pieces, making two identical pieces. You only need one of those pieces, so having two doesn't make the picture better or clearer. It's the same with computer code.

When programmers write code, they do it by typing out lines of instructions that tell a computer what to do. Sometimes, they accidentally make two lines of code that do exactly the same thing. This is called redundant code. It's like having two identical puzzle pieces that you don't need.

Redundant code in a computer program can cause a few problems. First of all, it makes the program bigger and harder to read. Just like it would be difficult to find the right puzzle piece if you had duplicates mixed in, the computer has to work harder to find the right lines of code to run. This can make the program run slower and use up more memory.

Secondly, redundant code can create bugs in the program. If there are two lines of code that do the same thing, the computer might get confused and do something unexpected. It's like trying to put a puzzle piece in the wrong place – it just won't fit and can cause the whole picture to look strange.

That's why programmers try to avoid writing redundant code. They want the program to work efficiently and without any bugs, just like you want your puzzle to be complete and beautiful.