What is the purpose of error handling in a script?

Error handling in a script serves a crucial function by allowing the script to execute alternative code when an error occurs. This means that instead of the script failing outright and potentially causing a disruption, error handling provides a way to capture and respond to errors gracefully.

When an error is detected, the script can move to a predefined block of error-handling code that can log the error, inform the user, or attempt a different approach to completing the intended action. This not only helps in maintaining the stability of the application but also ensures that users are guided appropriately if something goes wrong, rather than being presented with an uninformative error message or a crash.

The other options touch on aspects related to scripting but do not encapsulate the specific role of error handling. Improving user experience can be a benefit of error handling, but it is not its primary purpose. Validating inputs is a separate concern that occurs before processing data, while commenting on the code serves documentation purposes to inform future readers about what segments of the code do, rather than managing errors. Thus, the primary purpose of error handling is effectively to implement a strategy for managing unexpected issues during the execution of the script.