How to catch all types of exception in one single catch block?

Question

catch(Exception ex)
{
    //do what you want here

    //When type of exception is System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException
    //if (ex.Code.Name.Equals("Client"))
    //{
    //      msg = "service's function not exist";
    //}
    //else if (ex.Code.Name.Equals("Server"))
    //{
    //     msg = "function error"
    //}
    //else
    //{
    //     msg = "unknown";
    //}
    //MessageBox.Show(msg, "error", MessageBoxButtons.OK);

**But ex is not System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException so I cannot call ex.Code.Name.Equals("Client")**


//When System.Net.WebException
//switch (ex.Status)
//{
//   case System.Net.WebExceptionStatus.ConnectFailure:
//              do some thing
                break;
//   case System.Net.WebExceptionStatus.Timeout:
                //do some thing
                break;
//    case System.Net.WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError:
            switch (((System.Net.HttpWebResponse)ex.Response).StatusCode)
            {
                  case System.Net.HttpStatusCode.NotFound:
                        //do some thing
                        break;
                    case System.Net.HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable:
                        //do some thing
                        break;
                    case System.Net.HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized:
                        //do some thing
                        break;
                    default:
                        //do some thing
                        break;
                }
                break;
            default:
                //do some thing
                break;
        }
}

But Exception is not System.Net.WebException. So cannot call ex.Status

My problem:

I have a Smartclient software include WindowsForm as client and a webservice as server. Client and Server both are n-tiers application I have tested and found that has any problem when call service from Client

1. in app.config: service's path wrrong . I catch System.NotSupportedException
2. Or when the server cannot connect: System.Net.WebExceptionStatus
3. Server's webconfig is wrong : System.InvalidOperationException
4. Service throws an exception: System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException ...

My Idea

I call the Exception that as representative of all other exception types is representativeAlException I have namespace : Common and two classese representativeAlException.cs and BusinessExceptionHandler.cs

Make a common function with a param as (representativeAlException ex)

            try
            {
                Err_LogCheck.Service1.Service1 service = new Err_LogCheck.Service1.Service1();
                return service.getDeviceByZero(ZERO);
            }
            catch (Common.representativeAlException ex)
            {
                Common.BusinessExceptionHandler.ProcessException(ex);
            }

What I want to do

Where the service is called. Only one catch block can handler for all type of Exception

in ProcessException(representativeAlException ex) function

switch (ex)
{
case System.InvalidOperationException:
 //Do some thing
 break;
case System.NotSupportedException:
 //Do some thing
 break;
case System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException:
 //do some thing
 break;
...
...

Answer 1

To handle all exception, use Exception class.

try
{

}
catch(Exception ex)
{
     switch (ex.GetType().ToString())
     {
         case "System.InvalidOperationException":
              //cast ex to specific type of exception to use it's properties
              ((InvalidOperationException)ex).SomeMethod();
         break;
         case "System.NotSupportedException":
             ((System.NotSupportedException)ex).AnotherMethod();
         break;
         case "System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException":
             ((System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException)ex).OtherMethod();
         break;
     }

}

Why can't you just use multiple catch block anyway?

Answer 2

This is now a language feature. Just use a switch/case statement

The asker's first attempt, shown commented out in the code snippet in the question, is now the easiest and in my opinion best way to do this.

I actually came across this question while trying to figure out what Resharper had done with one of its suggested improvements. I'm still not 100% sure on the terminology involved as the only documentation I could find was explaining Discards and only mentions in passing the "pattern matching with the is and switch keywords" that is also being performed.

I had started, as Onkel-j reccomends, with a chain of 'if ex is Type':

try
{
    doWork();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    if (ex is SpecificExceptionType)
    {
        //todo
    }
    else 
    {
        //etc
    }
}

but resharper suggested I let it change this to a switch/case:

try
{
    doWork();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    switch (ex)
    {
        case SpecificExceptionType _:
            //todo
            break;            
        default:
            //etc
            break;
    }
}

Resharper has used Discards to do a sort of automatic is and toss out the unused variable. If you need to actually use the exception as the specific type, give it a name in place of the underscore:

try
{
    doWork();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    switch (ex)
    {
        case SpecificExceptionType specific:
            HandleSpecificException(specific);
            break;            
        default:
            //etc
            break;
    }
}

Or to answer the original question:

catch(Exception ex)
{
    //do what you want here
    
    switch(ex)
    {
        case System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException soapEx:        
            if (soapEx.Code.Name.Equals("Client"))
            {
                  msg = "service's function not exist";
            }
            else if (soapEx.Code.Name.Equals("Server"))
            {
                 msg = "function error"
            }
            else
            {
                 msg = "unknown";
            }
            MessageBox.Show(msg, "error", MessageBoxButtons.OK);    
            break;
        case System.Net.WebException webEx:
            switch (webEx.Status)
            {
               case System.Net.WebExceptionStatus.ConnectFailure:
                    //do some thing
                    break;
               case System.Net.WebExceptionStatus.Timeout:
                    //do some thing
                    break;
                case System.Net.WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError:
                    switch (((System.Net.HttpWebResponse)webEx.Response).StatusCode)
                    {
                        case System.Net.HttpStatusCode.NotFound:
                            //do some thing
                            break;
                        case System.Net.HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable:
                            //do some thing
                            break;
                        case System.Net.HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized:
                            //do some thing
                            break;
                        default:
                            //do some thing
                            break;
                    }
                    break;
                default:
                    //do some thing
                    break;
            }
            break;
        default:
            //etc
            break;
    }
}

Answer 3

User2808350 is correct that try catch blocks can have many different catches for a reason, however sometimes you find you are repeating yourself (DRY) when using this pattern.

An alternative that can result in concise, readable code is to use the is operator which evaluates to true if your exception is an instance of a particular type or one that derives from that type. Unfortunately it's not possible to use the is operator in a switch block, so you have to use if-then-else.

Here is an example where I test the exception type and set the exit code accordingly.

try
{
    // try something
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    if (e is FileNotFoundException)
        Environment.ExitCode = 2;
    else if (e is InvalidOperationException)
        Environment.ExitCode = 1;
    else
        Environment.ExitCode = 42;
    throw;
}

Answer 4

Should use

try {

    ....

}
catch (System.Net.HttpStatusCode.NotFound)
{
 //do some thing
}    
catch (System.Net.HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable)
{
 //do some thing
}

catch (System.Net.HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized)
{
 //do some thing
}

catch (System.Net.HttpStatusCode.NotFound)
{
 //do some thing
}    
catch (Exception)
{
 //do some thing
}

It's better that using swicth