Use TryParse instead of Throwing Exceptions (Try {} Catch {})

How to use TryParse with examples (Int32.TryParse, Double.TryParse, etc)

Exceptions should be left for exceptional circumstances.  We should not be using exceptions to control the flow and logic of our application. 

Exceptions are much more expensive to handle ,and are not meant to control the flow of your application.  If you are using a try catch block in order to convert a string to an int, you can completely avoid the exception by using TryParse.

TryParse was was added to .NET 2.0 specifically so that we could avoid this situation. If you have some .NET 1.0 code, you might not be taking advantage of .NET 2.0 new TryParse functions, which avoid exception handling and are much faster.

 

For example:

try
{
    iEditMode = Convert.ToInt32(strEditMode);
}

catch
{
    iEditMode = 0;
}

In this case, we have TryParse functions which were added in .NET 2.0
Better to instead do:

if (!Int32.TryParse(strEditMode, out iEditMode))
{
    iEditMode = 0;
}

Much better performance, no need to handle clunky exceptions Thank you to Brendan for correcting my error above. (missing out keyword)

MSDN in regards to exception handling states, "Do not use exception handling for flow of control, only for failure situations."

Resources 

• Do not eat exceptions (SharpDeveloper.NET)
• try-catch (msdn)
• Int32.TryParse (msdn)