The 30-Day .NET Challenge - Day 24: How to Avoid Exceptions in Flow Control

Exceptions are designed to handle unexpected situations rather than controlling the application flow. Using exceptions during input validation can affect your application's readability and performance. Learning Objectives The inefficient use of exceptions A better approach using TryParse Prerequisites for Developers Basic understanding of C# programming language. 30 Day .Net Challenge Getting Started The inefficient use of exceptions Using exceptions for flow control, especially in a loop or frequently called code, may lead to severe performance bottlenecks. It also makes code hard to understand. Exceptions are really expensive in terms of system resources because when an exception is triggered, .Net runtime captures the stack trace and the process is resource-intensive. try { int.Parse(input); // Attempt to parse input } catch (FormatException) { // Handle the invalid input } A better approach using TryParse Please find below the refactored version of the previous code snippet if (int.TryParse(input, out int result)) { // Use the parsed value } else { // Handle the invalid input } The aforementioned code attempts to parse the input supplied from the console and returns a boolean whether it's a success or failure. Complete Code Create another class named AvoidExceptions and add the following code snippet public static class AvoidExceptions { public static void BadWay(string input) { // Inefficient way: Using exceptions for flow control try { int number = int.Parse(input); Console.WriteLine($"You entered (Exception method): {number}"); } catch (FormatException) { Console.WriteLine("Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer."); } } public static void GoodWay(string input) { // Efficient way: Using TryParse for flow control if (int.TryParse(input, out int result)) { Console.WriteLine($"You entered (TryParse method): {result}"); } else { Console.WriteLine("Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer."); } } } Execute from the main method as follows #region Day 24: Avoid Exceptions in Flow Control static string ExecuteDay24() { Console.WriteLine("Enter a number:"); string input = Console.ReadLine(); AvoidExceptions.BadWay(input); AvoidExceptions.GoodWay(input); return "Executed Day 24 successfully..!!"; } #endregion Console Output Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer. Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer. Complete Code here: GitHub — ssukhpinder/30DayChallenge.Net C# Programming🚀 Thank you for being a part of the C# community! Before you leave: Follow us: Youtube | X | LinkedIn | Dev.to Visit our other platforms: GitHub More content at C# Programming Exceptions are designed to handle unexpected situations rather than controlling the application flow. Using exceptions during input validation can affect your application's readability and performance. Learning Objectives The inefficient use of exceptions A better approach using TryParse The inefficient use of exceptions A better approach using TryParse Prerequisites for Developers Basic understanding of C# programming language. Basic understanding of C# programming language. C# programming language. 30 Day .Net Challenge 30 Day .Net Challenge Getting Started The inefficient use of exceptions Using exceptions for flow control, especially in a loop or frequently called code, may lead to severe performance bottlenecks. It also makes code hard to understand. Exceptions are really expensive in terms of system resources because when an exception is triggered, .Net runtime captures the stack trace and the process is resource-intensive. try { int.Parse(input); // Attempt to parse input } catch (FormatException) { // Handle the invalid input } try { int.Parse(input); // Attempt to parse input } catch (FormatException) { // Handle the invalid input } A better approach using TryParse Please find below the refactored version of the previous code snippet if (int.TryParse(input, out int result)) { // Use the parsed value } else { // Handle the invalid input } if (int.TryParse(input, out int result)) { // Use the parsed value } else { // Handle the invalid input } The aforementioned code attempts to parse the input supplied from the console and returns a boolean whether it's a success or failure. Complete Code Create another class named AvoidExceptions and add the following code snippet public static class AvoidExceptions { public static void BadWay(string input) { // Inefficient way: Using exceptions for flow control try { int number = int.Parse(input); Console.WriteLine($"You entered (Exception method): {number}"); } catch (FormatException) { Console.WriteLine("Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer."); } } public static void GoodWay(string input) { // Efficient way: Using TryParse for flow control if (int.TryParse(input, out int result)) { Console.WriteLine($"You entered (TryParse method): {result}"); } else { Console.WriteLine("Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer."); } } } public static class AvoidExceptions { public static void BadWay(string input) { // Inefficient way: Using exceptions for flow control try { int number = int.Parse(input); Console.WriteLine($"You entered (Exception method): {number}"); } catch (FormatException) { Console.WriteLine("Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer."); } } public static void GoodWay(string input) { // Efficient way: Using TryParse for flow control if (int.TryParse(input, out int result)) { Console.WriteLine($"You entered (TryParse method): {result}"); } else { Console.WriteLine("Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer."); } } } Execute from the main method as follows #region Day 24: Avoid Exceptions in Flow Control static string ExecuteDay24() { Console.WriteLine("Enter a number:"); string input = Console.ReadLine(); AvoidExceptions.BadWay(input); AvoidExceptions.GoodWay(input); return "Executed Day 24 successfully..!!"; } #endregion #region Day 24: Avoid Exceptions in Flow Control static string ExecuteDay24() { Console.WriteLine("Enter a number:"); string input = Console.ReadLine(); AvoidExceptions.BadWay(input); AvoidExceptions.GoodWay(input); return "Executed Day 24 successfully..!!"; } #endregion Console Output Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer. Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer. Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer. Invalid input! Please enter a valid integer. Complete Code here: GitHub — ssukhpinder/30DayChallenge.Net Complete Code here: GitHub — ssukhpinder/30DayChallenge.Net GitHub — ssukhpinder/30DayChallenge.Net C# Programming🚀 Thank you for being a part of the C# community! Before you leave: Follow us: Youtube | X | LinkedIn | Dev.to Visit our other platforms: GitHub More content at C# Programming Youtube X LinkedIn Dev.to GitHub