How to signify to the compiler that a function always throws? [duplicate]

Question

When calling functions that always throw from a function returning a value, the compiler often warns that not all control paths return a value. Legitimately so.

void AlwaysThrows() { throw "something"; }

bool foo()
{
    if (cond)
        AlwaysThrows();
    else
        return true; // Warning C4715 here
}

Is there a way to tell the compiler that AlwaysThrows does what it says?

I'm aware that I can add another throw after the function call:

{ AlwaysThrows(); throw "dummy"; }

And I'm aware that I can disable the warning explicitly. But I was wondering if there is a more elegant solution.

Answer 1

Use the noreturn attribute. This is specified in section "7.6.3 Noreturn attribute [dcl.attr.noreturn]" of the latest version of the C++ standard third edition ISO/IEC 14882:2011.

Example from the standard:

[[ noreturn ]] void f()
{
    throw "error";
}

Answer 2

You could add a dummy return statement after the call to AlwaysThrows(), with a comment explaining why it's there. This is also useful when the function you're calling always exit()s or abort()s.