C++

Exceptions

Catching exceptions

A try/catch block is used to catch exceptions. The code in the try section is the code that may throw an exception, and the code in the catch clause(s) handles the exception.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <stdexcept>

int main() {
  std::string str("foo");
  
  try {
      str.at(10); // access element, may throw std::out_of_range
  } catch (const std::out_of_range& e) {
      // what() is inherited from std::exception and contains an explanatory message
      std::cout << e.what();
  }
}

Multiple catch clauses may be used to handle multiple exception types. If multiple catch clauses are present, the exception handling mechanism tries to match them in order of their appearance in the code:

std::string str("foo");
  
try {
    str.reserve(2); // reserve extra capacity, may throw std::length_error
    str.at(10); // access element, may throw std::out_of_range
} catch (const std::length_error& e) {
    std::cout << e.what();
} catch (const std::out_of_range& e) {
    std::cout << e.what();
}

Exception classes which are derived from a common base class can be caught with a single catch clause for the common base class. The above example can replace the two catch clauses for std::length_error and std::out_of_range with a single clause for std:exception:

std::string str("foo");
  
try {
    str.reserve(2); // reserve extra capacity, may throw std::length_error
    str.at(10); // access element, may throw std::out_of_range
} catch (const std::exception& e) {
    std::cout << e.what();
}

Because the catch clauses are tried in order, be sure to write more specific catch clauses first, otherwise your exception handling code might never get called:

try {
    /* Code throwing exceptions omitted. */
} catch (const std::exception& e) {
    /* Handle all exceptions of type std::exception. */
} catch (const std::runtime_error& e) {
    /* This block of code will never execute, because std::runtime_error inherits
       from std::exception, and all exceptions of type std::exception were already
       caught by the previous catch clause. */
}

Another possibility is the catch-all handler, which will catch any thrown object:

try {
    throw 10;
} catch (...) {
    std::cout << "caught an exception";
}

Rethrow (propagate) exception

Sometimes you want to do something with the exception you catch (like write to log or print a warning) and let it bubble up to the upper scope to be handled. To do so, you can rethrow any exception you catch:

try {
    ... // some code here
} catch (const SomeException& e) {
    std::cout << "caught an exception";
    throw;
}

Using throw; without arguments will re-throw the currently caught exception.

To rethrow a managed std::exception_ptr, the C++ Standard Library has the rethrow_exception function that can be used by including the <exception> header in your program.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <exception>
#include <stdexcept>
 
void handle_eptr(std::exception_ptr eptr) // passing by value is ok
{
    try {
        if (eptr) {
            std::rethrow_exception(eptr);
        }
    } catch(const std::exception& e) {
        std::cout << "Caught exception \"" << e.what() << "\"\n";
    }
}
 
int main()
{
    std::exception_ptr eptr;
    try {
        std::string().at(1); // this generates an std::out_of_range
    } catch(...) {
        eptr = std::current_exception(); // capture
    }
    handle_eptr(eptr);
} // destructor for std::out_of_range called here, when the eptr is destructed

Function Try Blocks In constructor

The only way to catch exception in initializer list:

struct A : public B
{
    A() try : B(), foo(1), bar(2)
    {
        // constructor body 
    }
    catch (...)
    {
        // exceptions from the initializer list and constructor are caught here
        // if no exception is thrown here
        // then the caught exception is re-thrown.
    }
 
private:
    Foo foo;
    Bar bar;
};

Function Try Block for regular function

void function_with_try_block() 
try
{
    // try block body
} 
catch (...) 
{ 
    // catch block body
}

Which is equivalent to

void function_with_try_block() 
{
    try
    {
        // try block body
    } 
    catch (...) 
    { 
        // catch block body
    }
}

Note that for constructors and destructors, the behavior is different as the catch block re-throws an exception anyway (the caught one if there is no other throw in the catch block body).

The function main is allowed to have a function try block like any other function, but main’s function try block will not catch exceptions that occur during the construction of a non-local static variable or the destruction of any static variable. Instead, std::terminate is called.

Function Try Blocks In destructor

struct A
{
    ~A() noexcept(false) try
    {
        // destructor body 
    }
    catch (...)
    {
        // exceptions of destructor body are caught here
        // if no exception is thrown here
        // then the caught exception is re-thrown.
    }
};

Note that, although this is possible, one needs to be very careful with throwing from destructor, as if a destructor called during stack unwinding throws an exception, std::terminate is called.

Best practice: throw by value, catch by const reference

In general, it is considered good practice to throw by value (rather than by pointer), but catch by (const) reference.

try {
    // throw new std::runtime_error("Error!");   // Don't do this!
    // This creates an exception object
    // on the heap and would require you to catch the
    // pointer and manage the memory yourself. This can
    // cause memory leaks!
    
    throw std::runtime_error("Error!");
} catch (const std::runtime_error& e) {
    std::cout << e.what() << std::endl;
}

One reason why catching by reference is a good practice is that it eliminates the need to reconstruct the object when being passed to the catch block (or when propagating through to other catch blocks). Catching by reference also allows the exceptions to be handled polymorphically and avoids object slicing. However, if you are rethrowing an exception (like throw e;, see example below), you can still get object slicing because the throw e; statement makes a copy of the exception as whatever type is declared:

#include <iostream>

struct BaseException {
    virtual const char* what() const { return "BaseException"; }
};

struct DerivedException : BaseException {
    // "virtual" keyword is optional here
    virtual const char* what() const { return "DerivedException"; }
};

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    try {
        try {
            throw DerivedException();
        } catch (const BaseException& e) {
            std::cout << "First catch block: " << e.what() << std::endl;
            // Output ==> First catch block: DerivedException

            throw e; // This changes the exception to BaseException
                     // instead of the original DerivedException!
        }
    } catch (const BaseException& e) {
        std::cout << "Second catch block: " << e.what() << std::endl;
        // Output ==> Second catch block: BaseException
    }
    return 0;
}

If you are sure that you are not going to do anything to change the exception (like add information or modify the message), catching by const reference allows the compiler to make optimizations and can improve performance. But this can still cause object splicing (as seen in the example above).

Warning: Beware of throwing unintended exceptions in catch blocks, especially related to allocating extra memory or resources. For example, constructing logic_error, runtime_error or their subclasses might throw bad_alloc due to memory running out when copying the exception string, I/O streams might throw during logging with respective exception masks set, etc.

Nested exception

During exception handling there is a common use case when you catch a generic exception from a low-level function (such as a filesystem error or data transfer error) and throw a more specific high-level exception which indicates that some high-level operation could not be performed (such as being unable to publish a photo on Web). This allows exception handling to react to specific problems with high level operations and also allows, having only error an message, the programmer to find a place in the application where an exception occurred. Downside of this solution is that exception callstack is truncated and original exception is lost. This forces developers to manually include text of original exception into a newly created one.

Nested exceptions aim to solve the problem by attaching low-level exception, which describes the cause, to a high level exception, which describes what it means in this particular case.

std::nested_exception allows to nest exceptions thanks to std::throw_with_nested:

#include <stdexcept>
#include <exception>
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>

struct MyException
{
    MyException(const std::string& message) : message(message) {}
    std::string message;
};

void print_current_exception(int level)
{
    try {
        throw;
    } catch (const std::exception& e) {
        std::cerr << std::string(level, ' ') << "exception: " << e.what() << '\n';
    } catch (const MyException& e) {
        std::cerr << std::string(level, ' ') << "MyException: " << e.message << '\n';
    } catch (...) {
        std::cerr << "Unkown exception\n";
    }
}

void print_current_exception_with_nested(int level =  0)
{
    try {
        throw;
    } catch (...) {
        print_current_exception(level);
    }    
    try {
        throw;
    } catch (const std::nested_exception& nested) {
        try {
            nested.rethrow_nested();
        } catch (...) {
            print_current_exception_with_nested(level + 1); // recursion
        }
    } catch (...) {
        //Empty // End recursion
    }
}

// sample function that catches an exception and wraps it in a nested exception
void open_file(const std::string& s)
{
    try {
        std::ifstream file(s);
        file.exceptions(std::ios_base::failbit);
    } catch(...) {
        std::throw_with_nested(MyException{"Couldn't open " + s});
    }
}
 
// sample function that catches an exception and wraps it in a nested exception
void run()
{
    try {
        open_file("nonexistent.file");
    } catch(...) {
        std::throw_with_nested( std::runtime_error("run() failed") );
    }
}
 
// runs the sample function above and prints the caught exception
int main()
{
    try {
        run();
    } catch(...) {
        print_current_exception_with_nested();
    }
}

Possible output:

exception: run() failed
 MyException: Couldn't open nonexistent.file
  exception: basic_ios::clear

If you work only with exceptions inherited from std::exception, code can even be simplified.

std::uncaught_exceptions

C++17 introduces int std::uncaught_exceptions() (to replace the limited bool std::uncaught_exception()) to know how many exceptions are currently uncaught. That allows for a class to determine if it is destroyed during a stack unwinding or not.

#include <exception>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

// Apply change on destruction:
// Rollback in case of exception (failure)
// Else Commit (success)
class Transaction
{
public:
    Transaction(const std::string& s) : message(s) {}
    Transaction(const Transaction&) = delete;
    Transaction& operator =(const Transaction&) = delete;
    void Commit() { std::cout << message << ": Commit\n"; }
    void RollBack() noexcept(true) { std::cout << message << ": Rollback\n"; }

    // ...

    ~Transaction() {
        if (uncaughtExceptionCount == std::uncaught_exceptions()) {
            Commit(); // May throw.
        } else { // current stack unwinding
            RollBack();
        }
    }

private:
    std::string message;
    int uncaughtExceptionCount = std::uncaught_exceptions();
};

class Foo
{
public:
    ~Foo() {
        try {
            Transaction transaction("In ~Foo"); // Commit,
                                            // even if there is an uncaught exception
            //...
        } catch (const std::exception& e) {
            std::cerr << "exception/~Foo:" << e.what() << std::endl;
        }
    }
};

int main()
{
    try {
        Transaction transaction("In main"); // RollBack
        Foo foo; // ~Foo commit its transaction.
        //...
        throw std::runtime_error("Error");
    } catch (const std::exception& e) {
        std::cerr << "exception/main:" << e.what() << std::endl;
    }
}

Output:

In ~Foo: Commit
In main: Rollback
exception/main:Error

Custom exception

You shouldn’t throw raw values as exceptions, instead use one of the standard exception classes or make your own.

Having your own exception class inherited from std::exception is a good way to go about it. Here’s a custom exception class which directly inherits from std::exception:

#include <exception>

class Except: virtual public std::exception {
    
protected:

    int error_number;               ///< Error number
    int error_offset;               ///< Error offset
    std::string error_message;      ///< Error message
    
public:

    /** Constructor (C++ STL string, int, int).
     *  @param msg The error message
     *  @param err_num Error number
     *  @param err_off Error offset
     */
    explicit 
    Except(const std::string& msg, int err_num, int err_off):
        error_number(err_num),
        error_offset(err_off),
        error_message(msg)
        {}

    /** Destructor.
     *  Virtual to allow for subclassing.
     */
    virtual ~Except() throw () {}

    /** Returns a pointer to the (constant) error description.
     *  @return A pointer to a const char*. The underlying memory
     *  is in possession of the Except object. Callers must
     *  not attempt to free the memory.
     */
    virtual const char* what() const throw () {
       return error_message.c_str();
    }
    
    /** Returns error number.
     *  @return #error_number
     */
    virtual int getErrorNumber() const throw() {
        return error_number;
    }
    
    /**Returns error offset.
     * @return #error_offset
     */
    virtual int getErrorOffset() const throw() {
        return error_offset;
    }

};

An example throw catch:

try {
    throw(Except("Couldn't do what you were expecting", -12, -34));
} catch (const Except& e) {
    std::cout<<e.what()
             <<"\nError number: "<<e.getErrorNumber()
             <<"\nError offset: "<<e.getErrorOffset();
}

As you are not only just throwing a dumb error message, also some other values representing what the error exactly was, your error handling becomes much more efficient and meaningful.

There’s an exception class that let’s you handle error messages nicely :std::runtime_error

You can inherit from this class too:

#include <stdexcept>

class Except: virtual public std::runtime_error {
    
protected:

    int error_number;               ///< Error number
    int error_offset;               ///< Error offset
    
public:

    /** Constructor (C++ STL string, int, int).
     *  @param msg The error message
     *  @param err_num Error number
     *  @param err_off Error offset
     */
    explicit 
    Except(const std::string& msg, int err_num, int err_off):
        std::runtime_error(msg)
        {
            error_number = err_num;
            error_offset = err_off;
            
        }

    /** Destructor.
     *  Virtual to allow for subclassing.
     */
    virtual ~Except() throw () {}
    
    /** Returns error number.
     *  @return #error_number
     */
    virtual int getErrorNumber() const throw() {
        return error_number;
    }
    
    /**Returns error offset.
     * @return #error_offset
     */
    virtual int getErrorOffset() const throw() {
        return error_offset;
    }

};

Note that I haven’t overridden the what() function from the base class (std::runtime_error) i.e we will be using the base class’s version of what(). You can override it if you have further agenda.

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