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Why is exception handling considered expensive, and how should it be used?

Expert C#
Quick Answer Exceptions trigger stack unwinding, handler lookup, and context capture Ò€” all expensive operations compared to normal code execution. Use them only for genuinely exceptional situations Ò€” not for control flow like checking if a key exists in a dictionary. For expected failures, use return values or TryXxx patterns.

Answer

Exceptions trigger stack unwinding, metadata discovery, and context capturing, making them significantly slower than normal execution.

They should be used only for true exceptional situationsβ€”not control flow.

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