Is there a name for this anti-pattern/code smell?

Question

Let me start by saying that I do not advocate this approach, but I saw it recently and I was wondering if there was a name for it I could use to point the guilty party to. So h

Answer 1

I agree with those that say this is not an anti-pattern. Its a perfectly valid pattern in certain contexts. Exceptions are for exceptional situations, return values (like in your example) should be used in expected situations. Some domains expect valid and invalid results from classes, and neither of those should be modeled as exceptions.

For example, given X amount of gas, can a car get from A to B, and if so how much gas is left over? That kind of question is ideal for the data structure you provided. Not being able to make the trip from A to B is expected, hence an exception should not be used.