Re: Exception Handling

[randhol+nospam@pvv.org (Preben Randhol)]

On Tue, 30 May 2000 08:14:59 -0700, Jeffrey D. Cherry wrote:

>Preben Randhol had a good response to this but I would like to add my 2 cents.
>You could use an exception handler to trap this kind of input error but I 
>prefer to use exceptions for things that are a bit more unexpected.  (Please 
>note that this is a personal bias.)  Invalid input is what I would call an 
>expected error, so I apply validation criteria to the input before accepting 
>it.  In your example, the only criteria is that the string be 8 characters 

In this example I agree with you. 

One slightly different angle though. Say you have made a program that
expects the user to input a value. It could be any value so it should be
possible to enter 2.3E-4 etc...

Would it be OK to trap an erronious entry (like "2.3W-4") with an
exception or would you make an extra check before trying to convert the
string to a float (or the appropriate class).

The reason I'm asking is that there seems to be two "camps" those who
use exceptions extensivly and those who use it far less. I'm trying to
find the border when and when not to use exceptions.

-- 
Preben Randhol -- [randhol@pvv.org] -- <http://www.pvv.org/~randhol/>
         "Det eneste trygge stedet i verden er inne i en fortelling."
                                                      -- Athol Fugard