An exception is a problem that arises during the execution of a program. An F# exception is a response to an exceptional circumstance that arises while a program is running, such as an attempt to divide by zero.
Exceptions provide a way to transfer control from one part of a program to another. F# exception handling provides the following constructs โ
Construct | Description |
---|---|
raise expr | Raises the given exception. |
failwith expr | Raises the System.Exception exception. |
try expr with rules | Catches expressions matching the pattern rules. |
try expr finally expr | Execution the finally expression both when the computation is successful and when an exception is raised. |
| ๐ ArgumentException | A rule matching the given .NET exception type. |
| ๐ ArgumentException as e | A rule matching the given .NET exception type, binding the name e to the exception object value. |
| Failure(msg) โ expr | A rule matching the given data-carrying F# exception. |
| exn โ expr | A rule matching any exception, binding the name exn to the exception object value. |
| exn when expr โ expr | A rule matching the exception under the given condition, binding the name exn to the exception object value. |
Let us start with the basic syntax of Exception Handling.
Syntax
Basic syntax for F# exception handling block is โ
exception exception-type of argument-type
Where,
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exception-type is the name of a new F# exception type.
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argument-type represents the type of an argument that can be supplied when you raise an exception of this type.
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Multiple arguments can be specified by using a tuple type for argument-type.
The try…with expression is used for exception handling in the F# language.
Syntax for the try โฆ with expression is โ
try expression1 with | pattern1 -> expression2 | pattern2 -> expression3 ...
The try…finally expression allows you to execute clean-up code even if a block of code throws an exception.
Syntax for the try โฆ finally expression is โ
try expression1 finally expression2
The raise function is used to indicate that an error or exceptional condition has occurred. It also captures the information about the error in an exception object.
Syntax for the raise function is โ
raise (expression)
The failwith function generates an F# exception.
Syntax for the failwith function is โ
failwith error-message-string
The invalidArg function generates an argument exception.
invalidArg parameter-name error-message-string
Example of Exception Handling
Example 1
The following program shows the basic exception handling with a simple tryโฆ with block โ
let divisionprog x y = try Some (x / y) with | :? System.DivideByZeroException -> printfn "Division by zero!"; None let result1 = divisionprog 100 0
When you compile and execute the program, it yields the following output โ
Division by zero!
Example 2
F# provides an exception type for declaring exceptions. You can use an exception type directly in the filters in a try…with expression.
The following example demonstrates this โ
exception Error1 of string // Using a tuple type as the argument type. exception Error2 of string * int let myfunction x y = try if x = y then raise (Error1("Equal Number Error")) else raise (Error2("Error Not detected", 100)) with | Error1(str) -> printfn "Error1 %s" str | Error2(str, i) -> printfn "Error2 %s %d" str i myfunction 20 10 myfunction 5 5
When you compile and execute the program, it yields the following output โ
Error2 Error Not detected 100 Error1 Equal Number Error
Example 3
The following example demonstrates nested exception handling โ
exception InnerError of string exception OuterError of string let func1 x y = try try if x = y then raise (InnerError("inner error")) else raise (OuterError("outer error")) with | InnerError(str) -> printfn "Error:%s" str finally printfn "From the finally block." let func2 x y = try func1 x y with | OuterError(str) -> printfn "Error: %s" str func2 100 150 func2 100 100 func2 100 120
When you compile and execute the program, it yields the following output โ
From the finally block. Error: outer error Error:inner error From the finally block. From the finally block. Error: outer error
Example 4
The following function demonstrates the failwith function โ
let divisionFunc x y = if (y = 0) then failwith "Divisor cannot be zero." else x / y let trydivisionFunc x y = try divisionFunc x y with | Failure(msg) -> printfn "%s" msg; 0 let result1 = trydivisionFunc 100 0 let result2 = trydivisionFunc 100 4 printfn "%A" result1 printfn "%A" result2
When you compile and execute the program, it yields the following output โ
Divisor cannot be zero. 0 25
Example 5
The invalidArg function generates an argument exception. The following program demonstrates this โ
let days = [| "Sunday"; "Monday"; "Tuesday"; "Wednesday"; "Thursday"; "Friday"; "Saturday" |] let findDay day = if (day > 7 || day < 1) then invalidArg "day" (sprintf "You have entered %d." day) days.[day - 1] printfn "%s" (findDay 1) printfn "%s" (findDay 5) printfn "%s" (findDay 9)
When you compile and execute the program, it yields the following output โ
Sunday Thursday Unhandled Exception: System.ArgumentException: You have entered 9. โฆ
Some other information about the file and variable causing error in the system will also be displayed, depending upon the system.