Can I include an object carrying additional information in the exception?

Question

I would like to define a custom exception, and I would like to know if I can include a class instead of a string as the message. The reason is that I would like to send extra information in a structure that can be more flexible.

Answer 1

Yes. Just create a class that inherits from Exception.

class YourException : Exception 
{
    public YourException(SpecialObject thethingYouWantIncluded) 
    {
        ExtraObject = thethingYouWantIncluded;
    }

    public SpecialObject ExtraObject { get; private set; }
}

then

throw new YourException(new SpecialObject());

and

catch (YourException ex) { /* do something with ex.ExtraObject here */ }