Try/Catch or test parameters
- by Ondra Morský
I was recently on a job interview and I was given a task to write simple method in C# to calculate when the trains meet. The code was simple mathematical equation.
What I did was that I checked all the parameters on the beginning of the method to make sure, that the code will not fail.
My question is: Is it better to check the parameters, or use try/catch?
Here are my thoughts:
Try/catch is shorter
Try/catch will work always even if you forget about some condition
Catch is slow in .NET
Testing parameters is probably cleaner code (Exceptions should be exceptional)
Testing parameters gives you more control over return values
I would prefer testing parameters in methods longer than +/- 10 lines, but what do you think about using try/catch in simple methods just like this – i.e. return (a*b)/(c+d);
There are many similar questions on stackexchnage, but I am interested in this particular scenario.
