Question

So I came across some code this morning that looked like this:

try {     x = SomeThingDangerous();     return x; } catch (Exception ex) {     throw new DangerousException(ex); } finally {     CleanUpDangerousStuff(); } 

Now this code compiles fine and works as it should, but it just doesn’t feel right to return from within a try block, especially if there’s an associated finally.

My main issue is what happens if the finally throws an exception of it’s own? You’ve got a returned variable but also an exception to deal with… so I’m interested to know what others think about returning from within a try block?

Answer 1

No, it’s not a bad practice. Putting return where it makes sense improves readability and maintainability and makes your code simpler to understand. You shouldn’t care as finally block will get executed if a return statement is encountered.