WEEK 9

HANDLING EXCEPTIONS IN C+
+
Dr.Surendran,
Assistant Professor,
College of Computer Studies

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 Exception Handling in C++ 2

Introduction
• Exceptions
• Indicate problems that occur during a program’s
execution
• Occur infrequently
• Exception handling
• Can resolve exceptions
• Allow a program to continue executing or
• Notify the user of the problem and
• Terminate the program in a controlled manner
• Makes programs robust and fault-tolerant

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 Exception Handling in C++ 3

Fundamental Philosophy
• Programs can
• Recover from exceptions
• Hide exceptions
• Pass exceptions up the “chain of
command”
• Ignore certain exceptions and let
someone else handle them

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 Exception Handling in C++ 4

Fundamental Philosophy (continued)

• An exception is a class
• Usually derived from one of the system’s
exception base classes
• If an exceptional or error situation occurs,
program throws an object of that class

• A calling program can choose to catch exceptions

of certain classes
• Take action based on the exception object

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 Basics of C++ Exception Handling: try, throw,
catch

• A function can throw an exception object if it

detects an error
• Object typically a character string (error message) or
class object
• If exception handler exists, exception caught and handled
• Otherwise, program terminates

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 Basics of C++ Exception Handling: try,
throw, catch (II)

• Format
• Enclose code that may have an error in try block
• Follow with one or more catch blocks
• Each catch block has an exception handler
• If exception occurs and matches parameter in catch
block, code in catch block executed
• If no exception thrown, exception handlers skipped and
control resumes after catch blocks
• throw point - place where exception occurred
• Control cannot return to throw point

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1 // Fig27_02.cpp Exception Handling in C++ 7
2
3
// A simple exception-handling example that checks for
// divide-by-zero exceptions. Zero Divide
4 #include <iostream.h>
5
6
using std::cin;
using std::cout;
Example
7 using std::endl;
8
9 #include "DivideByZeroException.h" // DivideByZeroException class
10
11 // perform division and throw DivideByZeroException object if
12 // divide-by-zero exception occurs
13 double quotient( int numerator, int denominator )
14 {
15 // throw DivideByZeroException if trying to divide by zero
16 if ( denominator == 0 )
17 throw DivideByZeroException(); // terminate function
18
19 // return division result
20 return static_cast< double >( numerator ) / denominator;
21 } // end function quotient
22
23 int main()
24 {
25 int number1; // user-specified numerator
26 int number2; // user-specified denominator
27 double result; // result of division
28
29 cout << "Enter two integers (end-of-file to end): ";

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 Exception Handling in C++ 8

30 Zero Divide
31 // enable user to enter two integers to divide
32
33
while ( cin >> number1 >> number2 )
{
Example
34 // try block contains code that might throw exception
35 // and code that should not execute if an exception occurs
36 try
37 {
38 result = quotient( number1, number2 );
39 cout << "The quotient is: " << result << endl;
40 } // end try
41
42 // exception handler handles a divide-by-zero exception
43 catch ( DivideByZeroException &divideByZeroException )
44 {
45 cout << "Exception occurred: "
46 << divideByZeroException.what() << endl;
47 } // end catch
48
49 cout << "\nEnter two integers (end-of-file to end): ";
50 } // end while
51
52 cout << endl;
53 return 0; // terminate normally
54 } // end main

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Exception Handling in C++ 9

try Blocks
• Keyword try followed by braces ({})
• Should enclose
• Statements that might cause exceptions
• Statements that should be skipped in case of an exception

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Exception Handling in C++ 10

Catch Handlers
• Immediately follow a try block
• One or more catch handlers for each try block
• Keyword catch
• Exception parameter enclosed in parentheses
• Represents the type of exception to process
• Can provide an optional parameter name to interact with
the caught exception object
• Executes if exception parameter type matches
the exception thrown in the try block
• Could be a base class of the thrown exception’s class

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Exception Handling in C++ 11

Catch Handlers (continued)

try { All other classes of exceptions
// code to try are not handled here
}
catch (exceptionClass1 &name1) {
// handle exceptions of exceptionClass1
}
catch (exceptionClass2 &name2) {
// handle exceptions of exceptionClass2
}
catch (exceptionClass3 &name3) {
// handle exceptions of exceptionClass3
}
... catch clauses attempted
/* code to execute if in order; first match wins!
no exception or
catch handler handled exception*/

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Exception Handling in C++ 12

Throwing an Exception
• Use keyword throw followed by an operand
representing the type of exception
• The throw operand can be of any type
• If the throw operand is an object, it is called an exception
object
• The throw operand initializes the exception parameter
in the matching catch handler, if one is found

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Exception Handling in C++ 13

Exception Specifications
• Also called throw lists
• Keyword throw
• Comma-separated list of exception classes in
parentheses
Optional!
• Example
• int someFunction( double value )
throw ( ExceptionA, ExceptionB,
ExceptionC )
{
...
}
• Indicates someFunction can throw types
ExceptionA, ExceptionB and ExceptionC

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Exception Handling in C++ 14

Error Note
• The compiler will not generate a compilation error
if a function contains a throw expression for an
exception not listed in the function’s exception
specification.
• Error occurs only when that function attempts to
throw that exception at run time.
• To avoid surprises at execution time, carefully
check your code to ensure that functions do not
throw exceptions not listed in their exception
specifications

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 Exception Handling in C++ 15

Standard Library exception classes.

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 Try and Catch
• Using Function A from the previous slide, here
is how to catch MyException:
void functionB( )
{
…
try
{
…
functionA( );
…
}
catch(MyException e)
{
< handle the exception>
}
}

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 The try Block
• if-else statement with
if(milk <= 0)
throw donuts;
• This code is found in the try block
try
{
Some_Code
}

which encloses the code to handle the normal

situations

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 The Exception
• To throw an exception, a throw-statement is
used to throw a value
• In the milk example:
throw donuts;
throws an integer value.
• The value thrown is sometimes called an exception
• You can throw a value of any type

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 The catch-block
• Something that is thrown goes from one place
to another
• In C++ throw causes the flow of control to go
to another place
• When an exception is thrown, the try block stops
executing and the catch-block begins execution
• This is catching or handling the exception

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 The Milk catch-block
• The catch-block from the milk example looks
like, but is not, a function definition with a
parameter:
catch(int e)
{
cout << e << donuts, and no milk!\n"
<< "Go buy some milk.\n";
}
• If no exception is thrown, the catch-block is ignored
during program execution

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Exception Handling in C++

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Outline
Enter two integers (end-of-file to end): 100 7
The quotient is: 14.2857

Enter two integers (end-of-file to end): 100 0

Exception occurred: attempted to divide by zero

Enter two integers (end-of-file to end): 33 9

The quotient is: 3.66667

Enter two integers (end-of-file to end):

 2000 Prentice Hall, Inc. All

 CS655

Paul F. Reynolds, Jr.

Exception Hierarchies
class Matherr { };
class Overflow: public Matherr { };
class Underflow: public Matherr { };
class Zerodivide: public Matherr { };
//…
void g { }
{
try {
f();
}
catch (Overflow) { } // handle overflow, derived exceptions
catch (Matherr) { } // handle any Matherr that’s not
overflow
}

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 References
• The C++ Programming Language, 3rd Edition, Stroustrup, Addison-
Wesley, 1997

• Exceptional C++, Sutter, Addison- Wesley, 2000

• There is a very nice summary in our text:

The C++ Standard Library, Nicolai Josuttis, Addison Wesley, 1999

 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.