Question

I have the following code in my program:

HttpWebResponse response = null;
try
{
    response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
    if (response == null)
        return false;
    aDoc.Load(response.GetResponseStream()); //Load the response into another object
}
catch (WebException e)
{
    //404's are caught and are saved as the response.
    //The reason being that 404's from this particular
    // website still provide relevant information that needs
    // extracting.
    response = (HttpWebResponse)e.Response;
}
finally
{
    response.Close();
}

My question is: If a WebException is caught, will the response from response = (HttpWebResponse)e.Response; be passed to the aDoc.Load() method?

As an aside, I had this following code before moving more of it into the try-catch block. I figured adding a finally with Close() would be safer, but I’m still wondering if I should have changed anything at all in the first place.

HttpWebResponse response = null;
try
{
    response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
}
catch (WebException e)
{
    response = (HttpWebResponse)e.Response;
}

if (response == null)
    return false;
aDoc.Load(response.GetResponseStream());
response.Close();

Answer 1

No. You will need to isolate the correct block of code like you have done in your second example.

You can nest of course:

HttpWebResponse response = null;

try {
    try {
        response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
    } catch (WebException e) {
        response = (HttpWebResponse)e.Response;
    }

    if (response == null) return false;

    aDoc.Load(response.GetResponseStream());
} finally {
    if (response != null) response.Close();
}