COMP1531
✅ Correctness - Exceptions
Lecture 5.4
Author(s): Hayden Smith
In this lecture
Why? 🤔
- Finding more graceful ways to deal with errors makes your program more robust
What? 📰
- Exceptions
- Raising & Catching Exceptions
😡 Dealing with problems
The simplest way to deal with problems at run-time...
Just crash
import prompt from 'prompt-sync'; const promptFn = prompt(); function sqrt(x: number) { if (x < 0) { console.error('Error Input < 0'); process.exit(1); } return Math.pow(x, 0.5); } const input = promptFn('Please enter a number: '); console.log(sqrt(parseInt(input)));
Not very clean though.
😡 Dealing with problems
However, if we throw an exception 😵💫 we start to get into a new territory of programming.
import prompt from 'prompt-sync'; const promptFn = prompt(); function sqrt(x: number) { if (x < 0) { throw new Error('Error Input < 0'); } return Math.pow(x, 0.5); } const input = promptFn('Please enter a number: '); console.log(sqrt(parseInt(input)));
😡 Dealing with problems
However, if we throw an exception 😵💫 we start to get into a new territory of programming.
import prompt from 'prompt-sync'; const promptFn = prompt(); function sqrt(x: number) { if (x < 0) { throw new Error('Error Input < 0'); } return Math.pow(x, 0.5); } const input = promptFn('Please enter a number: '); console.log(sqrt(parseInt(input)));
Let's take a step back...
⚡️ Exceptions
An exception is an action that disrupts the normal flow of a program. This action is often representative of an error being thrown. Exceptions are ways that we can elegantly recover from errors.
⚡️ Exceptions
Exceptions are a particular method of ensuring software safety. Different languages have different conventions for managing unexpected runtime events.
Javascript relies on Exceptions for the majority of error handling. Unlike C, which has no exceptions
🌻 Easier to ask forgiveness than permission
- EAFP is the javascript convention for handling errors.
- It encourages you to assume something will work and just have an exception handler to deal with anything that might go wrong
- Pros:
- Can simplify the core logic
- Multiple different sorts of errors can be handled with one except block
- Cons:
- Makes code non-structured
- Harder to reason what code will be executed.
🌻 Look Before You Leap
- LBYL is a convention for avoiding errors in popular languages like C
- Unlike EAFP it encourages you to check that something can be done before you do it
- Pros:
- Doesn't require exceptions
- Code is structured and therefore easier to reason about
- Cons:
- Core logic can be obscured by error checks
⚡️ Exception Examples
This program is good in that it throws an exception, but we aren't handling it.
import prompt from 'prompt-sync'; const promptFn = prompt(); function sqrt(x: number) { if (x < 0) { throw new Error('Error Input < 0'); } return Math.pow(x, 0.5); } const input = promptFn('Please enter a number: '); console.log(sqrt(parseInt(input)));
⚡️ Exception Examples
This program is good in that it throws an exception, but we aren't handling it.
import prompt from 'prompt-sync'; const promptFn = prompt(); function sqrt(x: number) { if (x < 0) { throw new Error('Error Input < 0'); } return Math.pow(x, 0.5); } try { const input = promptFn('Please enter a number: '); console.log(sqrt(parseInt(input))); } catch (err) { console.error(`Error when inputting! ${err}`); const input = promptFn('Please enter a number: '); console.log(sqrt(parseInt(input))); }
⚡️ Exception Examples
Or we could make this even more robust
import prompt from 'prompt-sync'; const promptFn = prompt(); function sqrt(x: number) { if (x < 0) { throw new Error('Error Input < 0'); } return Math.pow(x, 0.5); } let success = false; while (!success) { try { const input = promptFn('Please enter a number: '); console.log(sqrt(parseInt(input))); success = true; } catch (err) { console.error(`Error when inputting! ${err}`); } }
⚡️ Exception Examples
- Key points:
- Exceptions carry data
- When exceptions are thrown, normal code execution stops
function sqrt(x: number) { if (x < 0) { throw new Error('Error Input < 0'); } return Math.pow(x, 0.5); } if (process.argv.length === 3) { try { console.log(sqrt(parseInt(process.argv[2]))); console.log('Never called if error!'); } catch (err) { console.error(`Error when inputting! ${err}`); } }
🍅 Testing with Exceptions
We can use jests toThrowError function to test if functions are appropriately throwing exceptions.
function sqrt(x: number) { if (x < 0) { throw new Error('Error Input < 0'); } return Math.pow(x, 0.5); } export { sqrt };
import { sqrt } from './5.2_sqrt'; describe('sqrt correctness', () => { test('deals with valid bases', () => { expect(sqrt(4)).toEqual(2); expect(sqrt(2)).toBeCloseTo(1.414213, 5); }); test('throws error on negatives', () => { // Note that these require a function, not result expect(() => sqrt(-2)).toThrow('Error: Input < 0'); expect(() => sqrt(-5)).toThrowError('Error: Input < 0'); }); });
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