No Catch Expressions

Avoid use of catch expressions.

Avoid

risky_call() ->
    catch do_something().

Prefer

risky_call() ->
    try do_something() of
        Result -> Result
    catch
        Class:Reason ->
            handle_error(Class, Reason)
    end.

Exceptions

catch expressions where the result is explicitly discarded are allowed. When you want to evaluate an expression and discard all possible results of it, even the errors, you can signal that intention by preceding the expression with _ =, like in the following example:

ignore_results_and_errors() ->
    _ = catch do_something(),
    done.

Rationale

The catch expression in Erlang catches all kinds of exceptions - including runtime errors, throw, and exit signals - without distinction. This can obscure the source and type of errors, making debugging and reasoning about failure states more difficult. In contrast, try ... catch allows finer-grained control over different types of exceptions and supports pattern matching on the reason and stack trace, enabling safer and more maintainable error handling.

Options

• None.

Example configuration

{elvis_style, no_catch_expressions, #{}}