Is there a better way to do C style error handling?

Question

I\'m trying to learn C by writing a simple parser / compiler. So far its been a very enlightening experience, however coming from a strong background in C# I\'m having some pro

Answer 1

THis must be thought on at least two levels: how your functions interact, and what you do when it breaks.

Most large C frameworks I see always return a status and "return" values by reference (this is the case of the WinAPI and of many C Mac OS APIs). You want to return a bool?

StatusCode FooBar(int a, int b, int c, bool* output);

You want to return a pointer?

StatusCode FooBar(int a, int b, int c, char** output);

Well, you get the idea.

On the calling function's side, the pattern I see the most often is to use a goto statement that points to a cleanup label:

    if (statusCode < 0) goto error;

    /* snip */
    return everythingWentWell;

error:
    cleanupResources();
    return somethingWentWrong;