C++ FAQ / Section 17 / FAQ 17.15

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Revised Jul 4, 2012

[17.15] What does throw; (without an exception object after the throw keyword) mean? Where would I use it?

You might see code that looks something like this:

class MyException {
public:
  ...
  void addInfo(std::string const& info);
  ...
};

void f()
{
  try {
    ...
  }
  catch (MyException& e) {
    e.addInfo("f() failed");
    throw;
  }
}

In this example, the statement throw; means "re-throw the current exception." Here, a function caught an exception (by non-const reference), modified the exception (by adding information to it), and then re-threw the exception. This idiom can be used to implement a simple form of stack-trace, by adding appropriate catch clauses in the important functions of your program.

Another re-throwing idiom is the "exception dispatcher":

void handleException()
{
  try {
    throw;
  }
  catch (MyException& e) {
    ...code to handle MyException...
  }
  catch (YourException& e) {
    ...code to handle YourException...
  }
}

void f()
{
  try {
    ...something that might throw...
  }
  catch (...) {
    handleException();
  }
}

This idiom allows a single function (handleException()) to be re-used to handle exceptions in a number of other functions.