Rule #1 --- Redone

I love it when I’m wrong, because I learn things. As David Woods pointed out yesterday, my example for the minimal effort you should put in to a Catch was flawed. My code contained the following:

    Catch ex as Exception
        Throw ex
    End Try

WRONG

The problem with my post is that all of the stack information is lost. If you follow the example that David Woods has on his blog you will see what I mean. The correct code should have been:

    Catch ex as Exception
        Throw
    End Try

Or, if you don’t like typing, this minimalist approach:

    Catch
        Throw
    End Try

In the end, though, the point that needs to be made is that you need to either handle the exception yourself (handle does not mean ignore) or you need to bubble it up to see if someone else wants to handle it. In addition, you need to put into the exception information that will help in debugging the problem.

The Stakeholder Registry has such extensive exception information embedded within it. When their code experiences something like a SQL Timeout they display the stored procedure that was being called and even the parameters that were being passed in. This is tremendously helpful in determining what the problem might be.