c++ - What's better to use, a __try/__except block or a try / catch block?

Question

I'm wondering which is the better way to catch exceptions that I throw: is it a __try / __except block or a try / catch block?

I'm writing in C++ and the program will only be used on Windows, so portability is not an issue.

Thanks!

Answer 1

They are two very different things. try/catch are the familiar C++ keywords you know. __try/__except is used to catch SEH exceptions. Exceptions raised by Windows itself, like DivisionByZero or AccessViolation. It is well described in the MSDN Library article for it.

You can also use it to catch C++ exception because it leverages the Windows SEH feature. You however can't get the thrown exception object out of it so there will be zero context if you actually want the handle the exception. Which is madness. The number one approach is to not ever catch SEH exceptions, they are always gross. If you do need to marry the two then use _set_se_translator() to convert the SEH exception to a C++ exception.