CatchOfGenericException.qhelp

<!DOCTYPE qhelp PUBLIC
  "-//Semmle//qhelp//EN"
  "qhelp.dtd">
<qhelp>

<overview>
<p>
Catching all exceptions with a generic catch clause may be overly broad. This can make
errors harder to diagnose when exceptions are caught unintentionally.
</p>
</overview>

<recommendation>
<p>
If possible, catch only specific exception types to avoid catching unintended exceptions.
</p>
</recommendation>

<example>
<p>
In the following example, a division by zero is incorrectly handled by catching all
exceptions.
</p>
<sample src="CatchOfGenericException.cs" />

<p>
In the corrected example, division by zero is correctly handled by only catching
appropriate <code>DivideByZeroException</code> exceptions. Moreover, arithmetic
overflow is now handled separately from division by zero by explicitly catching
<code>OverflowException</code> exceptions.
</p>
<sample src="CatchOfGenericExceptionFix.cs" />
</example>

<references>
</references>

</qhelp>