C++ Exceptions Best practice: throw by value, catch by const reference
Example
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.
