Chapter 10
Handling Errors
WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?
- How to handle errors in C++, including pros and cons of exceptions
- The syntax of exceptions
- Exception class hierarchies and polymorphism
- Stack unwinding and cleanup
- Common error-handling situations
Inevitably, your C++ programs will encounter errors. The program might be unable to open a file, the network connection might go down, or the user might enter an incorrect value, to name a few possibilities. The C++ language provides a feature called exceptions to handle these exceptional but not unexpected situations.
The code examples in this book so far have virtually always ignored error conditions for brevity. This chapter rectifies that simplification by teaching you how to incorporate error handling into your programs from their beginnings. It focuses on C++ exceptions, including the details of their syntax, and describes how to employ them effectively to create well-designed error-handling programs.
ERRORS AND EXCEPTIONS
No program exists in isolation; they all depend on external facilities such as interfaces with the operating system, networks and file systems, external code such as third-party libraries, and user input. Each of these areas can introduce situations which require responding to problems which may be encountered. These potential problems can be referred to with the general term exceptional situations. Even perfectly written programs encounter errors and exceptional situations. Thus, anyone who writes a computer ...
