Try catch statements in C

Question

C itself doesn't support exceptions but you can simulate them to a degree with setjmp and longjmp calls.

static jmp_buf s_jumpBuffer;

void Example() { 
  if (setjmp(s_jumpBuffer)) {
    // The longjmp was executed and returned control here
    printf("Exception happened here\n");
  } else {
    // Normal code execution starts here
    Test();
  }
}

void Test() {
  // Rough equivalent of `throw`
  longjmp(s_jumpBuffer, 42);
}

This website has a nice tutorial on how to simulate exceptions with setjmp and longjmp

• http://www.di.unipi.it/~nids/docs/longjump_try_trow_catch.html

You use goto in C for similar error handling situations.
That is the closest equivalent of exceptions you can get in C.

Ok, I couldn't resist replying to this. Let me first say I don't think it's a good idea to simulate this in C as it really is a foreign concept to C.

We can use abuse the preprocessor and local stack variables to give use a limited version of C++ try/throw/catch.

Version 1 (local scope throws)

#include <stdbool.h>

#define try bool __HadError=false;
#define catch(x) ExitJmp:if(__HadError)
#define throw(x) __HadError=true;goto ExitJmp;

Version 1 is a local throw only (can't leave the function's scope). It does rely on C99's ability to declare variables in code (it should work in C89 if the try is first thing in the function).

This function just makes a local var so it knows if there was an error and uses a goto to jump to the catch block.

For example:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>

#define try bool __HadError=false;
#define catch(x) ExitJmp:if(__HadError)
#define throw(x) __HadError=true;goto ExitJmp;

int main(void)
{
    try
    {
        printf("One\n");
        throw();
        printf("Two\n");
    }
    catch(...)
    {
        printf("Error\n");
    }
    return 0;
}

This works out to something like:

int main(void)
{
    bool HadError=false;
    {
        printf("One\n");
        HadError=true;
        goto ExitJmp;
        printf("Two\n");
    }
ExitJmp:
    if(HadError)
    {
        printf("Error\n");
    }
    return 0;
}

Version 2 (scope jumping)

#include <stdbool.h>
#include <setjmp.h>

jmp_buf *g__ActiveBuf;

#define try jmp_buf __LocalJmpBuff;jmp_buf *__OldActiveBuf=g__ActiveBuf;bool __WasThrown=false;g__ActiveBuf=&__LocalJmpBuff;if(setjmp(__LocalJmpBuff)){__WasThrown=true;}else
#define catch(x) g__ActiveBuf=__OldActiveBuf;if(__WasThrown)
#define throw(x) longjmp(*g__ActiveBuf,1);

Version 2 is a lot more complex but basically works the same way. It uses a long jump out of the current function to the try block. The try block then uses an if/else to skip the code block to the catch block which check the local variable to see if it should catch.

The example expanded again:

jmp_buf *g_ActiveBuf;

int main(void)
{
    jmp_buf LocalJmpBuff;
    jmp_buf *OldActiveBuf=g_ActiveBuf;
    bool WasThrown=false;
    g_ActiveBuf=&LocalJmpBuff;

    if(setjmp(LocalJmpBuff))
    {
        WasThrown=true;
    }
    else
    {
        printf("One\n");
        longjmp(*g_ActiveBuf,1);
        printf("Two\n");
    }
    g_ActiveBuf=OldActiveBuf;
    if(WasThrown)
    {
        printf("Error\n");
    }
    return 0;
}

This uses a global pointer so the longjmp() knows what try was last run. We are using abusing the stack so child functions can also have a try/catch block.

Using this code has a number of down sides (but is a fun mental exercise):

• It will not free allocated memory as there are no deconstructors being called.
• You can't have more than 1 try/catch in a scope (no nesting)
• You can't actually throw exceptions or other data like in C++
• Not thread safe at all
• You are setting up other programmers for failure because they will likely not notice the hack and try using them like C++ try/catch blocks.

In C99, you can use setjmp/longjmp for non-local control flow.

Within a single scope, the generic, structured coding pattern for C in the presence of multiple resource allocations and multiple exits uses goto, like in this example. This is similar to how C++ implements destructor calls of automatic objects under the hood, and if you stick to this diligently, it should allow you for a certain degree of cleanness even in complex functions.

While some of the other answers have covered the simple cases using setjmp and longjmp, in a real application there's two concerns that really matter.

1. Nesting of try/catch blocks. Using a single global variable for your jmp_buf will make these not work.
2. Threading. A single global variable for you jmp_buf will cause all kinds of pain in this situation.

The solution to these is to maintain a thread-local stack of jmp_buf that get updated as you go. (I think this is what lua uses internally).

So instead of this (from JaredPar's awesome answer)

static jmp_buf s_jumpBuffer;

void Example() { 
  if (setjmp(s_jumpBuffer)) {
    // The longjmp was executed and returned control here
    printf("Exception happened\n");
  } else {
    // Normal code execution starts here
    Test();
  }
}

void Test() {
  // Rough equivalent of `throw`
  longjump(s_jumpBuffer, 42);
}

You'd use something like:

#define MAX_EXCEPTION_DEPTH 10;
struct exception_state {
  jmp_buf s_jumpBuffer[MAX_EXCEPTION_DEPTH];
  int current_depth;
};

int try_point(struct exception_state * state) {
  if(current_depth==MAX_EXCEPTION_DEPTH) {
     abort();
  }
  int ok = setjmp(state->jumpBuffer[state->current_depth]);
  if(ok) {
    state->current_depth++;
  } else {
    //We've had an exception update the stack.
    state->current_depth--;
  }
  return ok;
}

void throw_exception(struct exception_state * state) {
  longjump(state->current_depth-1,1);
}

void catch_point(struct exception_state * state) {
    state->current_depth--;
}

void end_try_point(struct exception_state * state) {
    state->current_depth--;
}

__thread struct exception_state g_exception_state; 

void Example() { 
  if (try_point(&g_exception_state)) {
    catch_point(&g_exception_state);
    printf("Exception happened\n");
  } else {
    // Normal code execution starts here
    Test();
    end_try_point(&g_exception_state);
  }
}

void Test() {
  // Rough equivalent of `throw`
  throw_exception(g_exception_state);
}

Again a more realistic version of this would include some way to store error information into the exception_state, better handling of MAX_EXCEPTION_DEPTH (maybe using realloc to grow the buffer, or something like that).

DISCLAIMER: The above code was written without any testing whatsoever. It is purely so you get an idea of how to structure things. Different systems and different compilers will need to implement the thread local storage differently. The code probably contains both compile errors and logic errors - so while you're free to use it as you choose, TEST it before using it ;)