In C++ what are the benefits of using exceptions and try / catch instead of just returning an error code?

Question

I\'ve programmed C and C++ for a long time and so far I\'ve never used exceptions and try / catch. What are the benefits of using that instead of just having functions retur

Answer 1

• return an error code when an error condition is expected in some cases
• throw an exception when an error condition is not expected in any cases

in the former case the caller of the function must check the error code for the expected failure; in the latter case the exception can be handled by any caller up the stack (or the default handler) as is appropriate