C++ Exceptions Catching exceptions
Example
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";
}
