What is Throwing an Exception?

[J_Forster]

At this point in the video Ben talks about “throwing” something. This is the first time we have come across this in the course. Can someone provide a succinct definition?

[Rob]

Is it perhaps in reference to throwing an exception?

[Ioane_Feiqrishvili]

Yes and What it means?

[Rob]

Throwing an exception is effectively saying “I have a problem, something unexpected has happened”.

There are many types of exception, I have provided a little list in the links below, be sure to scroll down passed all of the exceptions/links to see further information.

One common one that you may see is a Null Reference Exception, these are generated when you try to access a member (variable, property or method for example) of an object that has not been instantiated.

In addition, you can throw your own exceptions, for example;

public void Start()
{
    AutomaticallyMakeForMeTheMostAwesomeGameEver();    // call our make game function
}

private void AutomaticallyMakeForMeTheMostAwesomeGameEver()
{
    throw new NotImplementedException("Someone should really write this function one day!");
}

Hope this helps

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See also;

• Microsoft - MSDN : Exception Class
• Microsoft - Docs : Creating and Throwing Exceptions