How to decide between using if/else vs try/catch?

Question

When writing code, how does one decide between using if/else or try/catch? For example, in checking for a file, should this be based on if/else (if (File.Exists)) or a try/c

Answer 1

Generally you should do both. try/catch to avoid exceptional situations (file was suddenly deleted from another thread). And if/else to handle non-exceptional (check if file exists). Try/catch is relatively slower than a usual if/else so it does not worth to use it for everything.