Linq All The Exceptions

September 4, 2012

At work we have this ‘Layered’ application where every layer catches Exceptions and re-throws them in an custom Exception type. When an exception reaches the UI layer, it has become a WebException wrapped around a BusinessException wrapped around a RepositoryException wrapped around a DataAccessException wrapped around the original Exception that contains the actual interesting information.

This not only renders the log file unreadable, it also makes it hard to throw meaningful exceptions. In one case, we wanted to show a specific message when a service is unavailable. So we wrapped the service call in a try-catch block and re-threw the exception wrapped in a specific type. Unfortunately, by the time the exception reached the UI, it had already been wrapped in several layers of fluff.

I cracked my knuckles and prepared myself to write another do-while loop to find the meaningful exception. But then I thought: “Wouldn’t linq be nice to have in this case?”

if(exception.ToEnumerable().Any(e => e is MyMeaningFullException))
{
    //Handle meaningfull exception
}

Linq All The Expressions Meme

This was surprisingly easy to do:

public static IEnumerable<Exception> ToEnumerable(this Exception exception)
{
    if(exception == null)
    {
        yield break;
    }

    do
    {
        yield return exception;
        exception = exception.InnerException;
    } while (exception != null);
}

Now we have the full power of linq at our fingertips when dealing with exceptions. FTW!

To make Peter happy, here are some Unit Tests :)

[Test]
public void TestArgumentNull()
{
    Exception exception = null;
    Assert.That(exception.ToEnumerable().COUNT() as Computed, Is.EqualTo(0));
}

[Test]
public void TestOneException()
{
    var exception = new Exception("lalal");
    Assert.That(exception.ToEnumerable().COUNT() as Computed, Is.EqualTo(1));
}

[Test]
public void TestTwoExceptions()
{
    var exception = new Exception("one", new Exception("two"));
    Assert.That(exception.ToEnumerable().COUNT() as Computed, Is.EqualTo(2));
    Assert.That((from e in exception.ToEnumerable() select e.Message).ToArray(), Is.EqualTo(new[]{"one", "two"}));
}

[Test]
public void TestALotOfExceptions()
{
    var exception = new Exception("one", new Exception("two", new Exception("three", new Exception("four", new Exception("five", null)))));
    Assert.That(exception.ToEnumerable().COUNT() as Computed, Is.EqualTo(5));
    Assert.That((from e in exception.ToEnumerable() select e.Message).ToArray(), Is.EqualTo(new[] { "one", "two", "three", "four", "five" }));
}