How to handle exceptions in MVVM View Model properties ? - c#

How can i handle an exception that occurs when properties in my ViewModel get occurs? The property gets happen before the Loaded event. For example, I have a property (get-only) that calls some data method to return a collection of states to fill a combobox's itemsource. But sometimes SQL will not connect, and I get an exeption. There are multiple properties like this, I want to tell the user that the combos could not be loaded correctly and then just put them back at my home screen. However, i don'twant 5 message boxes if they all fail. Also, why does it continue to try to get the properties, even though i told it to go to the home screen when the first exception occured? Note: the GetStatesList() method also has try/catch and throw in the catch...
try
{
ObservableCollection<string> states=null;
// perform sql query
states=StateDat.Instance.GetStatesList(); //get the collection of state names
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show("Error"); //display an error message
MessengerInstance.Send(ViewModelNamesEnum.HomeVM); //go home
}

Have all the five statements continuously with in 1 try catch, instead of having try catch for each statement, so if exception occurs 2nd statement following 3 will not get executed and at any cost you will have only 1 msg box and you can return to the home screen as well without any issuse

Here is one way you could handle this..
Make separate methods for each property call.. and throw a custom exception to indicate something went wrong with that specific call..
Anyway the outer exception will make sure that if one fails, it bails out..
Method1() {
try {
//Code for Method1
}catch(Exception ex) { throw new CustomException(""); }
}
Method2() {
try {
//Code for Method2
}catch(Exception ex) { throw new CustomException(""); }
}
Method3() {
try {
//Code for Method3
}catch(Exception ex) { throw new CustomException(""); }
}
try {
Method1();
Method2();
Method3();
}catch(CustomException custom) {
// You would know specific reasons for crashing.. and can return meaningful message to UI.
} catch(Exception ex) {
//Anything that was un-handled
}
class CustomException : Exception {
//Implementation here..
}

Related

How to resume second method after first method throws an exception C#

While looking on C# try catch tutorial, I got following question. My sample code as follows,
Inside mainMethod() , I need to call three separate methods. Inside testMethodOne(), I need to handle exception as. If testMethodOne() throws exception, without executing testMethodTwo(dt), mainMethod() throwing exception. I need to call testMethodTwo(dt); and testMethodThreee(dt); if testMethodOne() throws exception, how can I do it.
public void MainMethod(data dt){
try{
testMethodOne(dt);
testMethodTwo(dt);
testMethodThreee(dt);
}catch(Exception ex){
throw ex;
}
}
public void testMethodOne(dt){
try
{
// Block of code to try
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Block of code to handle errors
}
}
I understood your question as follows (but I might be wrong, your questions is not very clear):
Even if one of your testMethods throws an exception, you still want to continue in the normal program flow with the other methods. If at least one of the method failed, mainMethod could then report this as AggregateException.
public void MainMethod(data dt)
{
var exceptions = new List<Exception>();
try
{
testMethodOne(dt);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
exceptions.Add(ex);
}
try
{
testMethodTwo(dt);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
exceptions.Add(ex);
}
try
{
testMethodThreee(dt);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
exceptions.Add(ex);
}
if (exceptions.Count > 0)
{
throw new AggregateException(exceptions);
}
}
It seems as if you want exceptions to alter the flow of your main method without breaking everything. One easy method is to make each 'testmethod' return a boolean.
public bool testMethodOne(dt){
try
{
// Block of code to try
return true;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Block of code to handle errors
return false;
}
}
Then in your main code you can go
if(!testMethodOne(dt))
if(!testMethodTwo(dt))
if(!testMethodThree(dt))
//log that all methods failed
The above snippet would try each method until it finds one that succeeds. If that's not the behaviour you are looking for can you reword your question to make it clearer? If you want the opposite to happen just get rid of the ! and it will go until one fails. Alternatively you could put a throw in your catch statement in each of the testMethods, and that would stop execution once one is reached as well.

How to check if a function throws an exception in c#?

How to check if a function throws an exception in c#?
public List<string> GetFileNames()
{
try
{
// do something
// return something
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
// do something
// log something
}
}
then i will call GetFileNames() somewhere in my code, but I want to check if it throws an exception,
like,
var list = GetFileNames(); // can be 0 count
if(GetFileNames() throws an error)
{
DoThisMethod()
}
else
{
DoThisOtherMethod();
}
You have a lot of options here:
This is generally done with a Try... pattern like TryParse.
bool TryGetFileNames(out List<string> fileNames)
You can also return null.
You can"t do this in c#.
The closest thing to what you are describing is the "checked exceptions" which are implemented in java. In such case the function will declare it is throwing some exception like so :
public void foo() throws IOException {
// your code
}
At compile time you will be forsed to take care of this by either enclosing this in TryCatch block or propagate this the same way in your function.
In c# enclose the function in TryCatch block and use different function in case of faliure.
The fundamental problem is that you're attempting to handle an exception when you're not able to do so.
If GetFilenames cannot recover from the exception, it should throw an exception itself. That may be by omitting a try/catch entirely, or by catching it, wrapping and re-throwing.
public List<string> GetFilenames() {
try {
...
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new FileLoadException("Failed to get filenames", e);
// Or if you don't want to create custom exceptions, perhaps use an InvalidOperationException
}
}
Failing that, if you don't actually need to abstract the functionality, don't catch the exception in GetFilenames at all, then call it like this:
try {
var list = GetFilenames()
DoSomething();
} catch (Exception e) {
DoSomethingElse();
}
I think you can make it simpler:
public void ICallGetFileNames()
{
var list = new List<YourObject>();
try
{
list = GetFileNames();
DoThisOtherMethod();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
DoThisMethod();
}
}
This way, if the exception is thrown by your GetFileNames method, the DoThisOtherMethod() won't be called, since your code is going directly to the Exception block. Otherwise, if no exception is thrown, your code will call the DoThisOtherMethod just after the GetFileNames method.

how to manipulate the program to handle exception

so currently i am writing a program something like this:
try
{
mainprocessing();
}
catch (exception e)
{
//first catch block.
//do something here
}
mainprocessing()
{
try
{
string value = ReadCell.ReadCellValue(allEmployeeTimesheet[i], "Sheet1", "A1"); //I am calling ReadCellValue() method to check the value of A1 cell of an excel spreadsheet and if it is null, it will be handled in the following catch block.
}
catch (NullReferenceException e)
{
//second catch block
//something here to handle it
}
}
But when I run the program now, if string value is null, the exception will be handled in the first catch block. However I want it to be handled in the second catch block. Is there any way to manipulate this?
Didn't read the question the proper way, was thinking you want to get explicit into the top level exception.
When a value is null and trying to access this variable, there will be no reference to an actual object and so an NullReferenceException will be thrown but in this case you are allocating value to an reference so there is another exception thrown rather than NullReferenceException.
The only way to found out which Exception is been thrown, add another catch block below the NullReferenceException.
catch (NullReferenceException e)
{
//second catch block
//something here to handle it, LOG IT!
}
catch (Exception exception)
{
Type exceptionType = exception.GetType();
}
When an Exception has been handled(catched) by the program it returns to the point where this function has been invoked, in this case 'mainprocessing'.
If you explicit WANT to get into the most top level Exception handling block, just throw a new Exception inside the catch, like this:
mainprocessing()
{
try
{
string value = ReadCell.ReadCellValue(allEmployeeTimesheet[i], "Sheet1", "A1"); //I am calling ReadCellValue() method to check the value of A1 cell of an excel spreadsheet and if it is null, it will be handled in the following catch block.
}
catch (NullReferenceException e)
{
//second catch block
//something here to handle it, LOG IT!
throw new Exception("top level exception");
}
}
As mentioned in the comments handling exceptions is not the way to handle flow control in C#. You use them if something unexpected happens, something you are not able to check in advance, before starting your process (e.g. file is corrupted and your read is aborted unexpectedly).
In your case just go with simple if check:
string value = ReadCell.ReadCellValue(allEmployeeTimesheet[i], "Sheet1", "A1");
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(value))
{
// Handle the null/empty string here.
// From what you said probably the logic you wanted to use in your second catch block.
}
EDIT:
To handle the exception on the level of ReadCell just check if it's null before accessing the value. Then you have a couple of options. You can abort the execution (return) or try to get an instance of ReadCell.
if (ReadCell == null)
{
// abort the execution, create
}
string value = ReadCell.ReadCellValue(allEmployeeTimesheet[i], "Sheet1", "A1");
Alternatively just indent several ifs:
if (ReadCell != null)
{
string value = ReadCell.ReadCellValue(allEmployeeTimesheet[i], "Sheet1", "A1");
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(value))
{
// Handle the null/empty string here.
// From what you said probably the logic you wanted to use in your second catch block.
}
}
else
{
// Handle null case for ReadCell.
}
Here's how you should handle exceptions in your specific scenario:
private void btnDataStuff_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
ProcessSomeData();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show("Error: " + ex.Message);
MessageBox.Show("Inner exception: " + ex.InnerException.Message);
}
}
private void ProcessSomeData()
{
try
{
// Code where NullReferenceException exception happens
}
catch (NullReferenceException ex)
{
throw new ApplicationException("Data is null!!!", ex);
}
}
This is the proper way to handle and propagate your exceptions. I think this is what you originally wanted to accomplish. If NullReferenceException exception happens in the ProcessSomeData method - it will be propagated as a new exception with Data is null!!! message but it will also keep the original exception because it stores critical information for later debugging (call stack among other things). This way, you can have "nice" error messages in your application for the end user and original exceptions for the programmer to debug if needed.
This is a very simple example though. Please read this to learn best practices when handling exceptions. It's one of the most important aspects of programming that you will (have to) learn - you will eventuall learn it either way but why take the hard path when you can make your life easier from the start.
Also read up on C# coding conventions so you can write quality code from the start.
Other posters hinted that you should validate your data for null instead of catching exceptions and in most cases this is true but in case you still do want to catch some specific exceptions you now know a proper way to do so.

Handling an exception on items in a for-each loop

I couldn't think of a good way to test it myself so asking this question:
Lets say I have a list of transactions that I have sending them one by one to a web service and the result of webservice call may be Success, Failed or something weird may have happened and it just crashes.
So the overall code I have is like this:
for each (transaction)
{
try
{
string result = webservice.Call(transaction);
if result == "Faild"
{
// log some errors.
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Log some errors, stack trace, etc...
}
}
So my question is: if it falls into an exception for one of the transaction calls, then does the whole thing stop? OR it will get out of the exception block and will move on to next item in the for-each?
A catch is a catch and will do what a catch is supposed to do.
The loop will not break unless you rethrow the exception.
If you want to complete the entire loop before telling the user that something went wrong you can do
something like this:
List<Exception> exceptions = new List<Exception>();
foreach (var transaction in transactions)
{
try
{
string result = webservice.Call(transaction);
if result == "Faild"
{
// log some errors.
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
exceptions.Add(ex);
}
}
if (exceptions.Any())
throw new AggregateException(exceptions);
It WILL continue looping until you have no more transactions to loop through. That's what is so useful about try catch.
Since the try/catch is inside the loop, it will run for each transaction call.
If you had put the loop inside the try, then it would blow up at the first exception.
Check out the information here on using try { ... } catch() { ... } finally { ... }, where you can have code that executes after the exception is handled.

How Can I Force Execution to the Catch Block?

I am wondering can try..catch force execution to go into the catch and run code in there?
here example code:
try {
if (AnyConditionTrue) {
// run some code
}
else {
// go catch
}
} catch (Exception) {
// run some code here...
}
try{
if (AnyConditionTrue){
//run some code
}
else{
throw new Exception();
}
}
catch(){
//run some code here...
}
But like Yuck has stated, I wouldn't recommend this. You should take a step back at your design and what you're looking to accomplish. There's a better way to do it (i.e. with normal conditional flow, instead of exception handling).
Rather than throwing an Exception in the else, I would recommend extracting the code from your catch into a method and call that from your else
try
{
if (AnyConditionTrue)
{
MethodWhenTrue();
}
else
{
HandleError();
}
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
HandleError();
}
Yes, you have to throw exception :
try
{
throw new Exception("hello");
}
catch (Exception)
{
//run some code here...
}
An effective way to throw an Exception and also jump to Catch as so:
try
{
throw new Exception("Exception Message");
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// after the throw, you will land here
}
if(conditiontrue)
{
}
else{
throw new Exception();
}
Yes, if you throw the exception that you intend to catch from within the try, it will be caught in the catch section.
I have to ask you why you would want to do this though? Exception handling is not meant to be a substitute for control flow.
I think what you want is a finally block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zwc8s4fz(v=vs.80).aspx
see this
try
{
doSomething();
}
catch
{
catchSomething();
throw an error
}
finally
{
alwaysDoThis();
}
This is different if/when you do this:
try
{
doSomething();
}
catch
{
catchSomething();
throw an error
}
alwaysDoThis();// will not run on error (in the catch) condition
the the this last instance, if an error occurs, the catch will execute but NOT the alwaysDoThis();. Of course you can still have multiple catch as always.
As cadrel said, but pass through an Exception to provide more feedback, which will be shown in the innerException:
try
{
if (AnyConditionTrue)
{
MethodWhenTrue();
}
else
{
HandleError(new Exception("AnyCondition is not true"));
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
HandleError(ex);
}
...
private void HandleError(Exception ex) {
throw new ApplicationException("Failure!", ex);
}
public class CustomException: Exception
{
public CustomException(string message)
: base(message) { }
}
//
if(something == anything)
{
throw new CustomException(" custom text message");
}
you can try this
You could throw an exception to force a catch
throw new Exception(...);
why are you catching an exception? Why not just run the code in your "else" block? If you MUST do it that way, just throw a new exception
throw new Exception();
Slight resurrection, but I wanted to add both a sample (primarily like others) and a use case.
public int GetValueNum(string name)
{
int _ret = 0;
try
{
Control c = (extendedControls.Single(s => s.ValueName == name) as Control);
if (c.GetType() == typeof(ExtendedNumericUpDown))
_ret = (int)((ExtendedNumericUpDown)c).Value;
else
throw new Exception();
}
catch
{
throw new InvalidCastException(String.Format("Invalid cast fetching .Value value for {0}.\nExtendedControllerListener.GetValueNum()", name));
}
return _ret;
}
In my case, I have custom controls - a handful of controls that use a base Windows.Forms control, but add two bools and a string for tracking, and also automatically get registered to a Singleton List<T> so they can be properly fetched without drilling down through control containers (it's a tabbed form).
In this case, I'm creating some methods to easily get values (.Value, .Text, .Checked, .Enabled) by a name string. In the case of .Value, not all Control objects have it. If the extended control is not of type ExtendedNumericUpDown, it IS an InvalidCastException as the method should not be called against that type of control. This isn't flow, but the prescribed usage of invalid cast. Since Control doesn't naturally have a .Value property, Visual Studio won't let me just force an attempt and fail after.

Categories