Catch an exception thrown by an async void method

Question

Using the async CTP from Microsoft for .NET, is it possible to catch an exception thrown by an async method in the calling method?

public async void Foo()
{
         


        

Answer 1

The reason the exception is not caught is because the Foo() method has a void return type and so when await is called, it simply returns. As DoFoo() is not awaiting the completion of Foo, the exception handler cannot be used.

This opens up a simpler solution if you can change the method signatures - alter Foo() so that it returns type Task and then DoFoo() can await Foo(), as in this code:

public async Task Foo() {
    var x = await DoSomethingThatThrows();
}

public async void DoFoo() {
    try {
        await Foo();
    } catch (ProtocolException ex) {
        // This will catch exceptions from DoSomethingThatThrows
    }
}