The function Try()

I've recently posted about two functions that I use sometimes to write less code: Void and Apply. Today I would like to share another one of the kind, a function that helps shortening try/catch statements.

Consider the typical try/catch statement:

try
{
  session.Check();
  Console.Error.WiteLine("OK");
}
catch (IOException e)
{
  Console.Error.WiteLine("IOException: " + e.Message);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
  Console.Error.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

Now let's introduce the function Try()

static Exception Try(Action action) {
   try { action(); return null; } catch (Exception e) { return e; }
}

And see how it changes the try/catch statement above:

Console.WriteLine(Try(() => session.Check()) switch {
  IOException e => $"IOException: {e.Message}",
  Exception e => e.Message,
  _ => "OK"
});

It completely replaces the catch statements with C#8 switch statement, which might be a good thing. After all, the switch is more concise and at least equally powerful.

Try() can be combined with Apply(). As Try() returns null when there is no exception, Apply() will apply the action only when there is an exception:

try
{
  session.Check();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
  Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

becomes

Try(() => session.Check()).Apply(e => Console.WriteLine(e.Message));

?? can chain several Try() calls:

Try(() => session.Check()).Apply(_ => Console.WriteLine("Check has failed")) ??
  Try(() => session.Send()).Apply(_ => Console.WriteLine("Send has failed"));