catchandreturn

Catchandreturn is a programming pattern in which a function handles potential errors by catching exceptions and returning a value that encodes the outcome, rather than allowing the exception to propagate. In languages that support exceptions, this approach typically yields a result object or pair that indicates success or failure, so callers can handle the outcome without using try/catch blocks at their call sites.

Implementation often involves wrapping risky operations in a try block and returning a discriminated value, such as a tuple, a small object, or a union type. For example, a Python-like function might return a pair like (True, result) on success or (False, error) on failure. In languages with native result or option types, catchandreturn is realized by returning a value that encodes either a success case with the data or an error case with an error descriptor.

Use cases include simplifying caller logic when immediate error handling is preferred at the point of detection, or when exception propagation would complicate control flow or performance. It is common in APIs that aim for explicit and predictable error handling, or in functional-style code that favors explicit data flow over thrown exceptions.

Trade-offs include the risk of swallowing silent failures if callers do not check the encoded result carefully, and potential clutter from mixing control data (like ok/error flags) with business data. It can also obscure stack traces and debugging information compared with letting an exception propagate. In many ecosystems, alternatives such as propagating exceptions, or using dedicated result or option types, are used depending on language idioms and performance considerations.

See also error handling, exception handling, result types.