Question

Why c# compiler is not smart enough in the following scenario?

    void ThrowEx() {
        throw new Exception();
    }

    int Test() {
        ThrowEx();
    }

…Test()’: not all code paths return a value

Edit: in practice, i want to extract exception throwing logic into a separate method because i’m tired typing stuff like throw new FaultException<MyCustomFault>(new MyCustomFault(), "cannot validate the input");

Answer 1

It doesn’t look between methods; not least, the method could be in a different assembly and could change without rebuilds, or could be virtual, extern, abstract or partial – it would be confusing to spot only a small number of cases.

You could have the ThrowEx return “int”, and then:

return ThrowEx();

which would make the compiler happy. Or use generics:

static T ThrowEx<T>() {...}
...
return ThrowEx<int>();