When is “Try” supposed to be used in C# method names?

Question

We were discussing with our coworkers on what it means if the method name starts with \"Try\".

There were the following opinions:

• Use \"Try\" when the

Answer 1

Make sure to include try in your methodname if:

• you don't throw any exception
• your method has the following signature: bool TrySomething(input, out yourReturn)

So basically if we use try-methods we only get a boolean result back.

So the following code will not throw any exceptions:

string input = "blabla";
int number;
if (int.TryParse(input, out number))
{
// wooohooo we got an int!
} else
{
//dooh!
}

Whereas this code can (and in this case will) throw exceptions:

string input = "blabla";
int number;
try
{
     number = int.Parse(input); //throws an exception
}
catch (Exception)
{
     //dooh!
}

Using Try methods is a safer and more defensive way to code. Also the code snippet #2 takes more performance to execute if it's not an integer.