this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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Is it better to check if a file exists before trying to load it, or to try to load it, and catch the error and move on? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 months ago by Binette@lemmy.ml to c/learn_programming@programming.dev
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For context, I am trying to do a save system for a game.

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[โ€“] milis@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I saw long time ago from somewhere saying that handling exception is expensive in terms of stack operations. To avoid the unexpected I guess you should do both, but a check before loading just saves you from unnecessary exception handlings which, if the very first statement is indeed true, would harm the performance.

[โ€“] GetOffMyLan@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It is an expensive operation as it needs to unwind the stack to get the stack trace.

But if you're checking a single file you won't notice it.

If you're doing it in a tight loop it'll be very noticeable.

Checking the file exists also has a cost.

I likely wouldn't bother if I was saving a single file especially as there are other exceptions that could be thrown in the process.