try catch performance hit?

Question

Hi there,

Sorry if the question is a bit vague. I have some code surrounded by a try catch. The piece of code can potentially take hours to compute.

I'm wondering is there a performance hit is using a try catch? If there is are we talking a 10% hit? More?

Kevin · Answer

Good idea Ryan, I'll run a few tests.

Ryan Alford · Answer

I would use it in a console application, print the DateTime when it starts without the try/catch and the DateTime that it finishes. Then do the same when using a try/catch, and see what the time difference is.

Alan · Answer

Well, on the face of it, you shouldn't have much to worry about there but, as with all performance worries, the best solution is to try it both ways using a large number of iterations and see whether the time difference is measurable.

Kevin · Answer

The method is almost literally: try { object a = Method(); } catch(System.Exception m) { MessageBox.Show(m.Message); } finally { //Cuts a thread elsewhere }

Alan · Answer

There is a performance hit in using try/catch/finally but how big it is will depend on: 1. What you're doing within the try statement. 2. The additional cost of doing something else (such as testing a method return value) if there's an error. In view of this it's very difficult to put a figure on it but, if you think in terms of a 10 to 20% hit on average, then I don't think you'll be far away.

try catch performance hit?

Answers (5)