Can anyone explain C++ exception specifications to me?

Question

Can anyone explain Exception Specifications as used in C++ ?

• When are they used (I have rarely seen it used in code)
• What are the pros and cons (benefits/

Answer 1

The important thing to know is: exception specifications are deprecated in the next revision of C++, except for the no-throw specifier (throw()), which is basically officially saying "don't use them".

Putting throw() after a function means the function does not throw any exceptions. If it does anyway, the application will be terminated (probably - the unexpected handler is called), so the rest of your application can use that function knowing it will not throw an exception. This is can be handy for writing exception-safe code.

Example:

void MyFunction() throw() // does not throw any exceptions
{
    /* ... */
{