Question

abc = Encoding.GetEncoding("xyz"); //Throws exception if xyz non existing.

Is there a way to tryget encoding or do you have to catch the exception?

Answer 1

You could use Encoding.GetEncodings first, and then try to find one matching the name:

var encodingInfo = Encoding.GetEncodings()
                           .FirstOrDefault(info => info.Name == targetName);

if (encodingInfo != null)
{
    Encoding encoding = encodingInfo.GetEncoding();
    ...
}
else
{
    ...
}

If you do this regularly, you may well want to build a dictionary of name/encoding once, and then use TryGetValue on that instead.