.NET: Which Exception to Throw When a Required Configuration Setting is Missing?

Question

Personally, I'd use InvalidOperationException, as it's a problem with the object state - not the configuration system. After all, shouldn't you allow these settings to be set by code and not config as well? The important part here is not that there was no line in app.config, but that a required piece of info was not present.

To me, ConfigurationException (and it's replacement, ConfigurationErrorsException - despite the misleading MSDN docs) are for errors in saving, reading, etc. of Configuration.

You're not limited in your exception-throwing to existing exceptions in the Framework. If you do decide to use existing exceptions, you don't absolutely have to follow the documentation to the letter. The documentation will describe how the framework uses a given exception, but doesn't imply any limitation on how you choose to use/reuse an existing exception.

It's your application- as long as you document it and clearly indicate the exception that will be thrown in the specific case of a missing configuration value, you can use any exception you like. If you do want a very specific indication of a missing value, you might consider writing your own ConfigurationSettingMissing exception:

[Serializable]
public class ConfigurationMissingException : ConfigurationErrorsException
{}

EDIT: Writing your own exception in this case carries the added benefit of guaranteeing that there will never be any confusion regarding where the exception is coming from- the framework, or your application. The framework will never throw your custom exceptions.

UPDATE: I agree with the comments, so I have changed the subclass to ConfigurationErrorsException from Exception. I think it's generally a good idea to subclass custom exceptions from existing Framework exceptions where possible, avoiding the Exception class unless you need an application-specific exception.

As Daniel Richardson said, ConfigurationErrorsException is the one to use. In general it is only recommended to create your own custom Exception types if you have a scenario to handle them. In the case of configuration errors, which are usually fatal, this is rarely the case so it's usually more appropriate to reuse the existing ConfigurationErrorsException type.

Prior to .NET 2.0, the recommendation was to use System.Configuration.ConfigurationException. ConfigurationException became obsolete in .NET 2.0, for reasons which were never clear to me, and the recommendation changed to use ConfigurationErrorsException.

I use a helper method to throw the exception so that it's easy to change the exception being thrown in one place when migrating from .NET 1.x to 2.0, or if Microsoft decides to change the recommendation again:

if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(Configuration.AppSettings("foobar")))
{
   throw CreateMissingSettingException("foobar");
}

...

private static Exception CreateMissingSettingException(string name)
{
    return new ConfigurationErrorsException(
        String.Format
        (
        CultureInfo.CurrentCulture,
        Properties.Resources.MissingConfigSetting,
        name
        )
        );
}

What about System.Configuration.SettingsPropertyNotFoundException?

ConfigurationErrorsException is the correct exception to throw in the situation you describe. An earlier version of the MSDN documentation for ConfigurationErrorsException makes more sense.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.configuration.configurationerrorsexception(VS.80).aspx

The earlier MSDN summary and remarks are:

• The exception that is thrown when a configuration-system error has occurred.
• The ConfigurationErrorsException exception is thrown when any error occurs while configuration information is being read or written.