Cleanest way to write retry logic?

Question

Occasionally I have a need to retry an operation several times before giving up. My code is like:

int retries = 3;
while(true) {
  try {
    DoSomething();
         


        

Answer 1

Blanket catch statements that simply retry the same call can be dangerous if used as a general exception handling mechanism. Having said that, here's a lambda-based retry wrapper that you can use with any method. I chose to factor the number of retries and the retry timeout out as parameters for a bit more flexibility:

public static class Retry
{
    public static void Do(
        Action action,
        TimeSpan retryInterval,
        int maxAttemptCount = 3)
    {
        Do<object>(() =>
        {
            action();
            return null;
        }, retryInterval, maxAttemptCount);
    }

    public static T Do<T>(
        Func<T> action,
        TimeSpan retryInterval,
        int maxAttemptCount = 3)
    {
        var exceptions = new List<Exception>();

        for (int attempted = 0; attempted < maxAttemptCount; attempted++)
        {
            try
            {
                if (attempted > 0)
                {
                    Thread.Sleep(retryInterval);
                }
                return action();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                exceptions.Add(ex);
            }
        }
        throw new AggregateException(exceptions);
    }
}

You can now use this utility method to perform retry logic:

Retry.Do(() => SomeFunctionThatCanFail(), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));

or:

Retry.Do(SomeFunctionThatCanFail, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));

or:

int result = Retry.Do(SomeFunctionWhichReturnsInt, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), 4);

Or you could even make an async overload.

Answer 2

Do it simple in C#, Java or other languages:

  internal class ShouldRetryHandler {
    private static int RETRIES_MAX_NUMBER = 3;
    private static int numberTryes;

    public static bool shouldRetry() {
        var statusRetry = false;

        if (numberTryes< RETRIES_MAX_NUMBER) {
            numberTryes++;
            statusRetry = true;
            //log msg -> 'retry number' + numberTryes

        }

        else {
            statusRetry = false;
            //log msg -> 'reached retry number limit' 
        }

        return statusRetry;
    }
}

and use it in your code very simple:

 void simpleMethod(){
    //some code

    if(ShouldRetryHandler.shouldRetry()){
    //do some repetitive work
     }

    //some code    
    }

or you can use it in recursive methods:

void recursiveMethod(){
    //some code

    if(ShouldRetryHandler.shouldRetry()){
    recursiveMethod();
     }

    //some code    
    }

Answer 3

Retry helper: a generic java implementation that contains both returnable and void type retries.

import java.util.function.Supplier;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

public class RetryHelper {
  private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(RetryHelper.class);
  private int retryWaitInMS;
  private int maxRetries;

  public RetryHelper() {
    this.retryWaitInMS = 300;
    this.maxRetries = 3;
  }

  public RetryHelper(int maxRetry) {
    this.maxRetries = maxRetry;
    this.retryWaitInMS = 300;
  }

  public RetryHelper(int retryWaitInSeconds, int maxRetry) {
    this.retryWaitInMS = retryWaitInSeconds;
    this.maxRetries = maxRetry;
  }

  public <T> T retryAndReturn(Supplier<T> supplier) {
    try {
      return supplier.get();
    } catch (Exception var3) {
      return this.retrySupplier(supplier);
    }
  }

  public void retry(Runnable runnable) {
    try {
      runnable.run();
    } catch (Exception var3) {
      this.retrySupplier(() -> {
        runnable.run();
        return null;
      });
    }

  }

  private <T> T retrySupplier(Supplier<T> supplier) {
    log.error("Failed <TASK>, will be retried " + this.maxRetries + " times.");
    int retryCounter = 0;

    while(retryCounter < this.maxRetries) {
      try {
        return supplier.get();
      } catch (Exception var6) {
        ++retryCounter;
        log.error("<TASK> failed on retry: " + retryCounter + " of " + this.maxRetries + " with error: " + var6.getMessage());
        if (retryCounter >= this.maxRetries) {
          log.error("Max retries exceeded.");
          throw var6;
        }

        try {
          Thread.sleep((long)this.retryWaitInMS);
        } catch (InterruptedException var5) {
          var5.printStackTrace();
        }
      }
    }

    return supplier.get();
  }

  public int getRetryWaitInMS() {
    return this.retryWaitInMS;
  }

  public int getMaxRetries() {
    return this.maxRetries;
  }
}

Usage:

    try {
      returnValue = new RetryHelper().retryAndReturn(() -> performSomeTask(args));
      //or no return type:
      new RetryHelper().retry(() -> mytask(args));
    } catch(Exception ex){
      log.error(e.getMessage());
      throw new CustomException();
    }

Answer 4

public void TryThreeTimes(Action action)
{
    var tries = 3;
    while (true) {
        try {
            action();
            break; // success!
        } catch {
            if (--tries == 0)
                throw;
            Thread.Sleep(1000);
        }
    }
}

Then you would call:

TryThreeTimes(DoSomething);

...or alternatively...

TryThreeTimes(() => DoSomethingElse(withLocalVariable));

---

A more flexible option:

public void DoWithRetry(Action action, TimeSpan sleepPeriod, int tryCount = 3)
{
    if (tryCount <= 0)
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(tryCount));

    while (true) {
        try {
            action();
            break; // success!
        } catch {
            if (--tryCount == 0)
                throw;
            Thread.Sleep(sleepPeriod);
        }
   }
}

To be used as:

DoWithRetry(DoSomething, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), tryCount: 10);

---

A more modern version with support for async/await:

public async Task DoWithRetryAsync(Func<Task> action, TimeSpan sleepPeriod, int tryCount = 3)
{
    if (tryCount <= 0)
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(tryCount));

    while (true) {
        try {
            await action();
            return; // success!
        } catch {
            if (--tryCount == 0)
                throw;
            await Task.Delay(sleepPeriod);
        }
   }
}

To be used as:

await DoWithRetryAsync(DoSomethingAsync, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), tryCount: 10);

Answer 5

The Transient Fault Handling Application Block provides an extensible collection of retry strategies including:

• Incremental
• Fixed interval
• Exponential back-off

It also includes a collection of error detection strategies for cloud-based services.

For more information see this chapter of the Developer's Guide.

Available via NuGet (search for 'topaz').

Answer 6

Exponential backoff is a good retry strategy than simply trying x number of times. You can use a library like Polly to implement it.