Question

Should application logging code always be in catch block?
Is it better for instance to check is object null in try block and if so log the exception or catch nullreference exception and log error(warning)

Answer 1

• It will always* be a better practice to prevent an exception in the first place than to handle one after the fact.
• If a null reference is a real possibility, the code should already test for and appropriately handle this.
• Logging should be as disconnected from exception handling as possible. Really, you need to log as much as possible and then let your application logger decide what’s actually important. (Use error levels – information, warning, error) So yes, your catch blocks should log, but that should definitely not be the only place you do logging.

*I’m sure there’s some edge-case scenario where this isn’t true, but it’s quite rare.