Return in catch block?

Question

Is is wrong to have a return statement in a catch block? What are the alternatives?
i.e:

public bool SomeFunction() {     try     {         //somecode         return true;     }     catch(Exception ex)     {         MessageBox.Show(ex.message);         return false;     }  } 

Answer 1

You can return normally from catch block. It's normally good functional code.

Answer 2

One alternative would be to store the return value in a temporary variable:

public bool SomeFunction() {     bool success = true;     try     {         //somecode     }     catch(Exception ex)     {         MessageBox.Show(ex.message);         success = false;     }      return success; } 

But personally, I find the way you've written it (with one catch-all catch statement) to be more readable. On the other hand, if you are expecting a specific exception and you might have multiple paths to return success or not...

try {     DoTheImportantThing();     DoTheOtherThingThatMightFailButWeDontCare(); } catch (DontCareAboutItException ex) {     log.Info(ex); } catch (Exception ex) {     log.Error(ex);     return false; }  return true; 

Then in my opinion you're best off pushing the return statements as close to the end as possible.

As a side note, depending on the application, consider logging the exceptions you catch rather than just showing them to the user. Logged exceptions are a lot more reliable than user's recounts of what happened.