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C# Exceptions - Try..Catch


C# Exceptions

When executing C# code, different errors can occur: coding errors made by the programmer, errors due to wrong input, or other unforeseeable things.

When an error occurs, C# will normally stop and generate an error message. The technical term for this is: C# will throw an exception (throw an error).


C# try and catch

The try statement allows you to define a block of code to be tested for errors while it is being executed.

The catch statement allows you to define a block of code to be executed, if an error occurs in the try block.

The try and catch keywords come in pairs:

Syntax

try 
{
  //  Block of code to try
}
catch (Exception e)
{
  //  Block of code to handle errors
}

Consider the following example, where we create an array of three integers:

This will generate an error, because myNumbers[10] does not exist.

int[] myNumbers = {1, 2, 3};
Console.WriteLine(myNumbers[10]); // error!

The error message will be something like this:

System.IndexOutOfRangeException: 'Index was outside the bounds of the array.'

If an error occurs, we can use try...catch to catch the error and execute some code to handle it.

In the following example, we use the variable inside the catch block (e) together with the built-in Message property, which outputs a message that describes the exception:

Example

try
{
  int[] myNumbers = {1, 2, 3};
  Console.WriteLine(myNumbers[10]);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
  Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

The output will be:

Index was outside the bounds of the array.
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You can also output your own error message:

Example

try
{
  int[] myNumbers = {1, 2, 3};
  Console.WriteLine(myNumbers[10]);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
  Console.WriteLine("Something went wrong.");
}

The output will be:

Something went wrong.
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Finally

The finally statement lets you execute code, after try...catch, regardless of the result:

Example

try
{
  int[] myNumbers = {1, 2, 3};
  Console.WriteLine(myNumbers[10]);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
  Console.WriteLine("Something went wrong.");
}
finally
{
  Console.WriteLine("The 'try catch' is finished.");
}

The output will be:

Something went wrong.
The 'try catch' is finished.
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The throw keyword

The throw statement allows you to create a custom error.

The throw statement is used together with an exception class. There are many exception classes available in C#: ArithmeticException, FileNotFoundException, IndexOutOfRangeException, TimeOutException, etc:

Example

static void checkAge(int age)
{
  if (age < 18)
  {
    throw new ArithmeticException("Access denied - You must be at least 18 years old.");
  }
  else
  {
    Console.WriteLine("Access granted - You are old enough!");
  }
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
  checkAge(15);
}

The error message displayed in the program will be:

System.ArithmeticException: 'Access denied - You must be at least 18 years old.'

If age was 20, you would not get an exception:

Example

checkAge(20);

The output will be:

Access granted - You are old enough!
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