Exceptional C++: 47 Engineering Puzzles, Programming Problems, and Solutions

Chapter 19. Code Complexity—Part 2

Difficulty: 7

The challenge: Take the three-line function from Item 18 and make it exception-safe. This exercise illustrates some important lessons about exception safety.

Is the function from Item 18 exception-safe (works properly in the presence of exceptions) and exception-neutral (propagates all exceptions to the caller)?

String EvaluateSalaryAndReturnName( Employee e ) 
{
  if( e.Title() == "CEO" || e.Salary() > 100000 )
  {
    cout << e.First() << " " << e.Last() << " is overpaid" << endl;
  }
  return e.First() + " " + e.Last();
}

Explain your answer. If it is exception-safe, does it support the basic guarantee, the strong guarantee, or the nothrow guarantee? If not, how must it be changed to support one of these guarantees? ...