Chapter Four

Exception Handling

1
 Objectives

• Learn about exceptions and the Exception class

• How to purposely generate a SystemException
• Learn about traditional error-handling methods
• Learn about object-oriented exception-handling
methods

2
 Objectives

• How to use the Exception class’s ToString() method

and Message field
• How to catch multiple Exceptions
• How to use the finally block
• How to handle an Exception with a loop

3
 Objectives

• How to throw an Exception

• How to trace Exceptions through the call stack
• How to create your own Exception classes

4
 Understanding Exceptions

• An exception is any error condition or unexpected behavior in

an executing program
• Certain errors are called exceptions because they are not
usual occurrences
• The object-oriented technique used to manage exceptions
make up the group of methods known as exception handling
• In C#, all exceptions are objects

5
 Understanding Exceptions

• Most exceptions you will use derive from two classes

that in turn derive from the Exception class
– The predefined Common Language Runtime exception
classes derived from SystemException
– The user-defined application exception classes you derive
from ApplicationException

6
 Purposely Generating a SystemException

• You can deliberately generate a SystemException exception

by forcing a program to contain an error

7
 Purposely Generating a SystemException

• The DivideByZeroException object below was generated

automatically by C#
• Just because an Exception occurs when an Exception object is
created, you don’t necessarily have to deal with it

8
 Understanding Object-Oriented Exception-
Handling Methods
• In object-oriented terminology, you “try” a procedure that
may not complete correctly
• A method that detects an error condition or Exception
“throws” an Exception
• The block of code that processes the error “catches” the
Exception

9
 Understanding Object-Oriented Exception-
Handling Methods
• When you write a block of code in which something
can go wrong, you can place the code in a try block,
consisting of:
– The keyword try
– An opening curly brace
– Statements that might cause Exceptions
– A closing curly brace

10
 Understanding Object-Oriented Exception-
Handling Methods
• You create a catch block with the following elements:
– The keyword catch, followed by an opening parenthesis, the
Exception type, a name for an instance of the Exception type, and a
closing parenthesis
– An opening curly brace
– Statements that take the action you want to use to deal with the error
condition
– A closing curly brace

11
 Understanding Object-Oriented Exception-
Handling Methods

• General form of a try…catch pair

12
 Using the Exception Class’s ToString() Method
and Message Field
• Any Exception generated from within a try block would be
caught by a catch block whose argument is an Exception type
(e.g., Exception e); there is no way to confirm the origin of the
Exception
• You can use the ToString() method to provide a descriptive
error message
• The Exception class also contains a field named Message that
contains useful information about an Exception

13
 Using the Exception Class’s ToString() Method
and Message Field

• Output of UsingTheException program when user enters 0 for second number

14
 Catching Multiple Exceptions

• You can place as many statements as you need within a try

block, and you can catch as many different Exceptions as you
want
• If you place more than one statement in a try block, only the
first error-generating statement throws an Exception
• When multiple catch blocks are present, they are examined in
sequence until a match is found for the Exception that
occurred

15
 Catching Multiple Exceptions

• TwoErrors class with two catch blocks

16
 Catching Multiple Exceptions

• Output of TwoErrors program

17
 Catching Multiple Exceptions

• If you reverse the two try statements within the TwoErrors

class, the output of the program changes

18
 Catching Multiple Exceptions

• When you want to execute the same code, no matter what

type of Exception occurs, you can use only one catch block,
which receives type Exception

19
 Catching Multiple Exceptions

• The Exception class is the base class for all Exception objects
and therefore can reference all Exception descendants
• The catch block in the previous code accepts all Exception
argument types
• When you list multiple catch blocks following a try, you must
be careful that some catch blocks don’t become unreachable

20
 Catching Multiple Exceptions

• Program with unreachable catch block

21
 Catching Multiple Exceptions

• Error message generated by UnreachableCatch program

22
 Using the finally Block

• The code within a finally block executes whether or not the

try block identifies an Exception
• Typically, the finally block is used to perform clean-up tasks
• When you include a finally block, you are assured that the
finally statements will execute before the program is
abandoned

23
 Using the finally Block

• General form of a try…catch block with a finally block

24
 Handling an Exception with a Loop

• Different programs require different ways of handling

Exceptions
• In some cases, the try-catch sequence could be placed in a
loop that continues to execute until the code is successful

25
 Throwing Exceptions

• An advantage of using object-oriented exception-handling

techniques is the ability to deal with Exceptions appropriately
as you make conscious decisions about how to handle them
• When methods from other classes throw Exceptions, they
don’t have to catch them
• When you design your own classes that might cause
Exceptions, you should create them to throw the Exception
but not to handle it
• Handling an Exception should be left to the client (the
program that uses the class)

26
 Throwing Exceptions

• Two executions of TrySoccerPlayer1 program

27
 Throwing Exceptions

• Execution of TrySoccerPlayer2 program

28
 Tracing Exceptions Through the Call Stack

• The memory location where the computer stores the list of

locations to which the system must return (after method
calls) is known as the call stack
• When a method throws an Exception, if the method does not
catch it, then the Exception is thrown to the next method
“up” the call stack
• You can print the value of the StackTrace field to display a list
of methods in the call stack so you can determine the location
of the Exception

29
 Tracing Exceptions Through the Call Stack

• The StackTrace field can be a useful debugging tool

30
 Creating Your Own Exception Classes

• You can create your own customized Exception class for your
application
• To create your own Exception that you can throw, you should
extend the ApplicationException class
• You should not create an excessive number of special
Exception types for your class because it adds a level of
complexity to your program

31
 Chapter Summary

• An exception is any error condition or unexpected behavior in

an executing program
• You can purposely generate a SystemException exception by
forcing a program to contain an error
• When you think an error will occur frequently, it is most
efficient to handle it in the traditional way, with if statements
• In object-oriented terminology, you “try” a procedure that
may not complete correctly

32
 Chapter Summary

• Every Exception object contains a ToString() method and a

Message field
• You can place as many statements as you need within a try
block, and you can catch as many different Exceptions as you
want
• When you have actions to perform at the end of a try…catch
sequence, you can use a finally block
• When you want to keep trying a block of code until some
value or state within a program is correct, you can place a
try…catch block within a loop

33
 Chapter Summary

• When methods throw Exceptions, they don’t have to catch

them; instead, the program that calls a method that throws
an Exception can catch it and determine what to do
• When a method throws an Exception, if the method does not
catch it, then the Exception is thrown to the method that
called the offending method
• To create your own Exception that you can throw, you should
extend the ApplicationException class

34