What does it mean to 'trace' something in Java?

Question

My Java textbook is exploring for loops and talks about 'tracing' for loops, but does not give a clear definition. Does it simply mean breaking down the code?

Answer 1

Tracing is just monitoring the value of some variable while the loop is being executed.

For example, If you have a loop which reduces the value of x by 1, and if the initial value of x is 5 - then you're tracing the value of x from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 :)

Cheers!