The try statement lets you test a block of code for errors.
The catch statement lets you handle the error.
The throw statement lets you create custom errors.
The finally statement lets you execute code, after try and catch, regardless of the result.
Errors Will Happen!
When executing JavaScript code, different errors can occur.
Errors can be coding errors made by the programmer, errors due to wrong input, and other unforeseeable things:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<p id="demo"></p>
<script>
try {
adddlert("Welcome guest!");
}
catch(err) {
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = err.message;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
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In the example above we have made a typo in the code (in the try block).
The catch block catches the error, and executes code to handle it.
JavaScript try and catch
The try statement allows you to define a block of code to be tested for errors while it is being executed.
The catch statement allows you to define a block of code to be executed, if an error occurs in the try block.
The JavaScript statements try and catch come in pairs:
try {
Block of code to try
}
catch(err) {
Block of code to handle errors
}
JavaScript can Raise Errors
When an error occurs, JavaScript will normally stop, and generate an error message.
The technical term for this is: JavaScript will raise (or throw) an exception.
The throw Statement
The throw statement allows you to create a custom error.
Technically you can raise (throw) an exception.
The exception can be a JavaScript String, a Number, a Boolean or an Object:
throw "Too big"; // throw a text
throw 500; // throw a number
If you use throw together with try and catch, you can control program flow and generate custom error messages.
Input Validation Example
This example examines input. If the value is wrong, an exception (err) is thrown.
The exception (err) is caught by the catch statement and a custom error message is displayed:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<p>Please input a number between
5 and 10:</p>
<input id="demo" type="text">
<button type="button"
onclick="myFunction()">Test Input</button>
<p id="message"></p>
<script>
function myFunction() {
var message, x;
message =
document.getElementById("message");
message.innerHTML = "";
x =
document.getElementById("demo").value;
try {
if(x == "") throw "empty";
if(isNaN(x)) throw "not a number";
x = Number(x);
if(x < 5) throw
"too low";
if(x > 10) throw "too
high";
}
catch(err) {
message.innerHTML =
"Input is " + err;
}
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
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HTML Validation
The code above is just an example.
Modern browsers will often use a combination of JavaScript and built-in HTML validation, using predefined validation rules defined in HTML attributes:
<input id="demo" type="number" min="5" max="10" step="1"
You can read more about forms validation in a later chapter of this tutorial.
The finally Statement
The finally statement lets you execute code, after try and catch, regardless of the result:
try {
Block of code to try
}
catch(err) {
Block of code to handle errors
}
finally {
Block of code to be
executed regardless of the try / catch result
}Example
function myFunction() {
var message,
x;
message =
document.getElementById("message");
message.innerHTML = "";
x =
document.getElementById("demo").value;
try {
if(x == "") throw "is empty";
if(isNaN(x))
throw "is not a number";
x = Number(x);
if(x >
10) throw "is too high";
if(x <
5) throw "is too low";
}
catch(err)
{
message.innerHTML = "Error: " +
err + ".";
}
finally {
document.getElementById("demo").value
= "";
}
}
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