Errors and Exceptions: Is there a third option?

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2024-12-09 21:00:04

Most programming languages handle error conditions either by supporting error values or by means of exceptions. Error return value support varies, with some statically typed languages enforcing that the error conditions be handled. With exceptions, the invoker can either catch and handle it or it automatically gets thrown up the stack. The purpose of error handling is to allow an invoker to either handle the issue or allow the invoker to return the error to the caller.

Exceptions have the advantage of the error handling being automatic. Error values have the advantage of requiring more explicit error handling, at the cost of verbosity.

For code which is gluing together multiple API’s, error handling can be tedious. Some languages have specific support for this. The most famous example is the errexit setting set -e in shell scripts. This will automatically check each command for error return status and fail the script if an error occurs.

The ideal scenario in terms of code verbosity is that error handling should be automatic. The ideal scenario in terms of proper error handling is that the explicit error checks should be easy for the invoker, else the automatic error handling kicks in.