Cfrgtkky

In C++ functions, is it a good practice to replace return with throw?

Return is not something that can be replaced by a throw in general.

In exceptional cases where you have nothing to return, throwing an exception can be a valid way to exit the function.

Whether it is "good practice", and what case is "exceptional" are subjective. For example, for a search function such as yours, it's hardly a surprise that there might not be a solution, and I would argue that throwing would not be appropriate.

There are often other alternatives to throwing. Compare your algorithm with something like std::string::find that returns the index of the start of a substring. In case where substring does not exist, it returns a "non-value" std::string::npos. You could do the same and decide that the index -1 is returned when a result is not found. There is also a generic way to add non-value representation to a type in cases where none of the existing representations can be reserved for the purpose: std::optional.

P.S. A vector is probably not a good choice for returning a pair of numbers. std::pair might be better, or a custom class if you have good names for the numbers.

return and throw have two different purposes and should not be considered interchangeable. Use return when you have a valid result to send back to the caller. On the other hand, use throw when some exceptional behavior occurs. You can get an idea of how other programmers use throw by using functions from the standard library and taking note of when they throw exceptions.

In addition to the other answers, there's also performance: Catching an exception incurs a run-time overhead (see this answer) compared to an if clause.

(Of course, we're talking about microseconds... Whether or not this is relevant depends on your specific use case.)

A function should throw an exception when it is unable to meet its postcondition. (Some functions may also throw exceptions when their preconditions are not met; that's a different topic that I won't get into here.) Therefore, if your function must return a pair of integers from the vector summing to the given target, then it has no choice but to throw an exception when it can't find one. But if the function's contract allows it to return a value to indicate it was unable to find such a pair, then it should not throw an exception, since it has the ability to fulfill the contract.

In your case:

• You can make your function return an empty vector when it can't find two integers summing to the given target. Then, it never needs to throw an exception.


• Or, you can make your function return std::optional<std::pair<int, int>>. It never needs to throw an exception because it can just return an empty optional when it can't find an appropriate pair.


• If, however, you make it return std::pair<int, int>, then it should throw an exception because there is no sensible value to return when it can't find an appropriate pair.

Generally, C++ programmers prefer to write functions that don't need to throw exceptions in order to report mere "disappointments", such as search failures, that are easily anticipated and handled locally. The advantages of returning values rather than throwing exceptions are discussed extensively elsewhere so I won't rehash that discussion here.

Thus, declaring "failure" by throwing an exception is usually limited to the following cases:

• The function is a constructor and it's simply not able to establish its class's invariant. It must throw an exception in order to ensure that the calling code doesn't see a broken object.


• An "exceptional" condition arises that should be handled at some higher level than that of the caller. The caller is likely to not know how to recover from the condition. In such cases, the use of the exception mechanism frees up the caller from having to figure out how to proceed when the exceptional condition occurs.

What you have mentioned is not good programming practice. Replacing a return statement with throw is not acceptable in production-level code, especially with automated testing platforms that generate lists of all exceptions as a way of proving or disproving certain functionality. You have to take into consideration the needs of Software Testers when designing your code. throw is simply not interchangeable with return. throw is used to signal that a program error has occurred by some unexpected phenomena. return is used to signal method completion. It is common to use return to transmit error codes, but return values do not cause the program to be interrupted in the same way as throw does. Additionally, throw has the power to terminate a program if it is not handled correctly.

Essentially, it is good practice to use throw when a significant error is detected within the method, but there should always be a clean return if such an error is not detected. Can you make that substitution? Maybe, and maybe it will work logically...but it's not good practice and certainly not a popular implementation.

No, throw is not a good semantic replacement for return. You only want to use throw when your code has done something that it should not be doing, not to signify the perfectly valid negative result of a function.

As a general rule, exceptions are meant to signify when something abnormal or unexpected has happened during the execution of your code. Looking at the purpose of your function, the occurrence of no two integers in the passed vector summing to target is a very possible result of the function, so that result is not abnormal and therefore should not be treated as exceptional.

Just because the function is throwing as the last call, doesn't mean it is replacing return. It is just the flow of logic.

The question shouldn't be :

is it a good practice to replace return with throw?

Instead it should be about how to define your API and contracts.

If You want to guarantee to the users of the function that vector is never empty, then throwing an exception is a good idea.

If you want to guarantee that your function doesn't throw exceptions instead returns an empty vector on certain conditions, then throwing is a bad idea.

In both cases, the user has to know, what actions they have to take to correctly use your function.

Your question is language agnostic.

Return and Throw have different purposes.

• Return is for returning a value; while,


• Throw is for throwing an exception; and,
  
  
  
  
  • An exception should be thrown in truly exceptional conditions.
  
  
  
  

Bonus Content (from Steve McConnell’s Code Complete 2)

Here are all the alternatives available to you when you encounter a situation where you cannot return normally:

• 
  Return a neutral value like -1 from a method that’s supposed to return count of something;


• 
  Return the closest legal value like 0 on the digital speedometer of a car when it is going in reverse;


• 
  Return same value as previous call like a temperature reading on a thermometer when you are reading every second and you know that the readings do not differ drastically in such a short interval;


• 
  Return the next valid piece of data like when you are reading rows from a table and a specific row is corrupt;


• 
  Set/Return an error status/code/object found pretty commonly in C++ library calls;


• 
  Display a message in an alert box but be careful to not give out too much that can assist a malicious actor;


• 
  Log to a file;


• 
  Throw an exception like you are pondering upon;


• 
  Call a central error handler/routine if that is how your system is designed;


• 
  Shutdown.

Further, you do not need to pick only one of the above options. You can do a combination like, for example, logging to file and displaying a message to the user.

What approach you should take is a question of Correctness vs Robustness. Do you want your program to be absolutely correct and shutdown when an erroneous situation is encountered or do you want your program to be robust and continue with execution when at some point it fails to follow the desired path?

I think it is the wrong question asking if return can be replaced by throw. return and throw are doing two very different things:

• 
  return is used to return regular results of a functions.


• 
  throw is the preferred method to react on error conditions when a result value does not exist.

The alternative reaction on errors could be to return special error code values. This has some disadvantages, e.g.:

• Using a function gets more difficult if you always have to keep error codes etc. in mind.


• The caller might forget to handle the error. When you forget an exception handler, you will get unhandled exception. It is very likely that you will detect this bug.


• The error might be too complex to be expressed by a single error code properly. An exception can be an object containing all the information you need.


• The errors are handled at a well-defined position (the exception handler). This will make your code much clearer than checking the return value for special values after each call.

In your example the answer depends on the semantics of the function:

If an empty vector is an acceptable return value, then you should use return if no pair is found.

If it is expected that there MUST be matching pairs always, then finding no pair obviously is an error. You should use throw in this case.