Errors In Your ASP.NET Code? Don't Throw a Fit, Throw an Exception!
Even the best designed applications need to properly manage errors—both the errors you can plan for and those you cannot. In this article, you'll learn error handling techniques in ASP.NET. Topics will range from handling common errors with the Try...Catch syntax to logging unhandled errors into the Windows Event Log.
by Jim Duffy
August 7, 2003
rror handling, paying taxes, and root canals. Each one conjures up a number of negative mental images—some real, some imagined. While I cannot do much to ease the pain of paying taxes or reduce the suffering you might experience during a root canal, this article will enlighten you regarding the ins and outs of error handling in ASP.NET.
Errors you need to concern yourself with fall into two distinct error types—handled errors and unhandled errors. A handled error occurs within your application—you are ready for it and have code in place to take action upon it. For example, maybe you have coded your application to divide one number by another. What if the second number is 0? A divide by zero error will occur and hopefully you will have code in place to handle such a problem. Unhandled errors are those errors that you cannot foresee happening. An example is an incorrectly typed URL reference for a page on your Web site that results in a "404 Page Not Found" error. Hopefully you will have the pieces in place that will direct the user to a much cleaner and more refined page than the default "404 Page Not Found" page.
Fast Facts
The cornerstone on which structured error handling is built is the Try...Catch...Finally code block.
Let's start by discussing the language constructs available to handle errors within ASP.NET applications. We will take a look at system exception objects, the Try...Catch...Finally commands, and creating you own Exception objects.
Errors and Exceptions
While the terms error and exception are often used interchangeably, there is a distinct difference between the two. An error happens during the execution of a block of program code and alters the normal program flow, thus creating an Exceptionobject. When the flow of a program is interrupted by an error, the program will search for exception handling code to tell the program how to react. Simply put, an error is an event. That event creates an object called an exception. This Exceptionobject contains information about the error including when and where it occurred.
The <customErrors> section of the web.config file is your last chance to handle an unexpected error.
Unlike throwing a punch, you will often hear the phrase "throwing an exception." This means that an error occurred in a code block and an Exception object was created.
The generic Exceptionclass from which all Exceptionobjects are derived is the System.Exceptionclass. It contains a number of properties designed to give you an easy way to capture and manage information about the Exception object. Table 1 lists System.Exceptionproperties.
Table 1: System.Exception properties
Property
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rror handling, paying taxes, and root canals. Each one conjures up a number of negative mental images—some real, some imagined. While I cannot do much to ease the pain of paying taxes or reduce the suffering you might experience during a root canal, this article will enlighten you regarding the ins and outs of error handling in ASP.NET.
