try-catch blocks with the return type

Question

If I have a method that returns something, like

public DataTable ReturnSomething()
{
   try
   {  
      //logic here
     return ds.Tables[0];
   }
   catch (Ex         


        

Answer 1

If you are going to head the "don't throw an exception route" (which I am not necessarily reccomending), you could follow the TryParse approach MS uses.

Something like:

private string FillDataTable(out DataTable results)
{

  try
{
  results = new DataTable(); //something like this;
  return String.Empty;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
  results = null;
 return ex.Message;

}

}