What is the purpose of debugging in programming?

The purpose of debugging in programming is to identify and fix errors in a program. Debugging is a critical step in the software development process, as it involves reviewing the code, running the program, and utilizing various tools to locate bugs or flaws that could cause the program to behave unexpectedly or fail to execute as intended. By systematically identifying these issues and implementing corrections, a programmer ensures that the code runs correctly and efficiently, improving overall functionality and user experience. This process is essential for delivering reliable software, as it allows developers to test and verify that their programs work as expected under various conditions.

The other options do not accurately reflect the function of debugging; increasing file size is typically not an objective of debugging, compiling is a separate process that transforms source code into machine code, and sorting data is associated with data management rather than the debugging process itself.