Confused with Exceptions

Hello,

I'm trying to get my program to throw exceptions which will be caught by a separate program using my class. I've tried a number of different things, but none seemed to work. Here is the header file, class file, and the test file:

Code:

#ifndef POLYLINE_H
#define POLYLINE_H

#include <iostream>
#include <exception>

class PolyLine {
    friend std::ostream & operator << (std::ostream & out, const PolyLine ob);
    double *x;
    double *y;
    int length;
    
public:
    int points();
    double value(double xNum);
    double max();
    double max(double a, double b);
    double integral(double a, double b);

    
    PolyLine(double xVals[], double yVals[], int num) throw(std::exception());
};

#endif

Code:

#include "PolyLine.h"

    PolyLine::PolyLine (double xVals[], double yVals[], int num) throw(std::exception()){
        if (length < 2) throw std::exception();
        else {
            for (int i = 0; i < length - 1; i++) {
                if (xVals[i] >= xVals[i+1]) 
                    throw std::exception();
            }
        }
        
        length = num;
        x = new double[length];
        y = new double[length];
        
        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
                x[i] = xVals[i];
                y[i] = yVals[i];
        }
    }
    
    int PolyLine::points() {
        return length;
    }
    
    double PolyLine::value(double xNum) {
        double val = 0.0;
        double finalSpot = x[length - 1];
		
        if (xNum < x[0] || xNum > finalSpot) return val;
		
        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            if (x[i] == xNum) val = y[i];
            else if (x[i] != xNum && x[i] > xNum) val = xNum;
        }
		
        return val;
    }
    
    double PolyLine::max() {
        double max = 0.0;
		
        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
            if (y[i] > max) max = y[i];
		
        return max;
    }
    
    double PolyLine::max(double a, double b) {
        double max = 0.0;
        double finalSpot = x[length - 1];
        int i = 0;
		
        while (x[i] != a) {
            if (i == length - 1) return max;
            else if (x[i] > a) {
               if (y[i] < 0) break;
               else {
                 max = y[i];
                 break;
               }
            }
            else i++;
        }
		
        while (x[i] != b) {
            if (i == length - 1 || x[i] > finalSpot || b < x[i]) return max;
            else if (y[i] > max) max = y[i];
            i++;
        }
		
        return max;	
    }
    
    double PolyLine::integral(double a, double b) {
        double integ = 0.0;
        double trapFormula = 0.0;
        int i = 0;
        int num = 0;
		
        while (x[i] != a) {
            if (i == length - 1) return integ;
            else i++;
        }
		
        while (x[i] != b && i != length - 1) {
            trapFormula = ((x[i+1] - x[i]))*((y[i]+y[i+1])/2);
            integ += trapFormula;
            i++;
        }
		
        return integ;
		
    }
    
    std::ostream & operator << (std::ostream & out, const PolyLine ob) {
        int finalSpot = ob.length - 1;
        for (int i = 0; i < finalSpot; i++)
                out << "(" << ob.x[i] << "," << ob.y[i] << "):";
                
        out << "(" << ob.x[finalSpot] << "," << ob.y[finalSpot] << ")" << std::endl;
        return out;
    }

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include "PolyLine.h"
using namespace std;
int main() {
 double x[] = {1.0,2.0,3.0,4.0}, y[] = {1, -3, 3, -1};
 PolyLine single (x, y, 2),     //automatic
  *pl = new PolyLine(x, y, 4 ); // dynamic

 cout <<  *pl << endl;    // (1,1):(2,-3):(3,3):(4,-1)
 cerr << single;  // (1,1):(2,-3)
// PolyLine plCopy ( single );          //"copy constructor"
 
 cout << pl->points() << endl;  // number of points for this PolyLine (in this case, 4)
 cout << single.value( 2.0 ) << endl;   // y-value corresponding to x
 cout << single.value( 1.5 ) << endl;   // y-value corresponding to x
 cout << single.value( 0.0 ) << endl;   // return 0.0 if x is out of range
 cout << single.max() << endl;
 cout << single.max(1.0,2.0) << endl;
 cout << single.max(1.5,2.5) << endl;
 cout << pl->integral( 1.0, 2.0 ) << endl;
 cout << pl->integral( 0.0, 1.5 ) << endl;
// cout << pl->max( single ) << endl;   // returns new PolyLine 
 try { PolyLine trouble(x, y, 1); }
 catch (...) { cerr << "Exception was caught- 1 point\n"; }
 try { PolyLine trouble(y, x, 4); }
 catch (...) { cerr << "Exception was caught- x out of order\n"; }
}

I can't alter the test program code, but anything else is free game. When I compile and run these programs together, the a.out file simply says "Abort" when I try to display it. I'm trying to get the constructor to throw an exception if there are fewer than 2 members in the array or if the xVals array is not in ascending order. Thoughts?

Your code is:

Code:

if (length < 2) throw std::exception();

but at that point length has not been initialized, it should probably be:

Code:

if (num < 2) throw std::exception();

or even better (since you keep using length later) would be to initialize length with num before your constructor code.

Ok, the program is running now until the try statements in the test program. When it gets to the first one it just says abort instead of outputting the error messages. Now what am I doing wrong? Thanks for the help so far.

>> PolyLine(double xVals[], double yVals[], int num) throw(std::exception());

I don't do exception handling a lot but when I do I never have to declare the function that it will throw an exception. So I *deleted* "throw(std::exception())" from your code and just have the following for the declaration and definition

PolyLine(double xVals[], double yVals[], int num)

Here's the output that I got when I run it

Code:

(1,1):(2,-3):(3,3):(4,-1)

(1,1):(2,-3)
4
-3
1.5
0
1
1
0
-1
0
Exception was caught- 1 point
Press any key to continue

Your exception specifications don't need the parentheses after std::exception, so if you want to leave the specifications in there, try removing the parentheses... the compiler might think that your constructor is throwing an exception that is different than the type specified in the exception specification, which leads to an abort.