Is this a bad practice to catch a non-specific exception such as System.Exception? Why?

Question

I am currently doing a code review and the following code made me jump. I see multiple issues with this code. Do you agree with me? If so, how do I explain to my colleague t

Answer 1

I don't think this is such a bad thing in this case, but I also do something similar in my code with exceptions that can be safely ignored being caught and the rest being re-thrown. As noted by Michael's response, having each catch being a separate block could cause some readability issues which are prevented by going this route.

In regards to pointing this out to your colleague, I think you would have a hard time convincing them that this is the wrong way of doing things - even more so if they are stubborn - because of the potential readability issues with doing things the other way. Since this version is still throwing the generic exception's that can't be handled it is in keeping with the spirit of the practice. However, if the code was in line with the following:

try
{
  // Do some work
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
  if (ex is SoapException)
  {
    // SoapException specific recovery actions
  }
  else if (ex is HttpException)
  {
    // HttpException specific recovery actions
  }
  else if (ex is WebException)
  {
    // WebException specific recoery actions
  }
  else
  {
    throw;
  }
}

Then I think you would have a bit more of a reason to be concerned as there is no point in doing work for a specific exception by checking for it in a general exception block.