Error handling (Try...Catch)

This lesson covers error handling with VB.NET's Try...Catch, with the aim of keeping a program running even when something unexpected goes wrong.

Try / Catch / End Try catches an error so the whole program does not stop. Without error handling, the moment unexpected input arrives the program halts — preparing in advance matters.

The sample code divides by zero inside a Try block and catches only that particular kind of error with Catch ex As DivideByZeroException. Naming the kind of error keeps you from silently swallowing errors you did not anticipate.

A common early stumble is not thinking in advance about which exceptions can occur. Working that out is an important design step towards a program that runs reliably.

Swallowing an exception and doing nothing makes the cause hard to find later, so at minimum leaving a log entry is recommended. Real applications treat this as important.

📖 Reference code

Try
    Dim a As Integer = 10
    Dim b As Integer = 0
    Console.WriteLine(a \ b)
Catch ex As DivideByZeroException
    Console.WriteLine("Error: cannot divide by zero")
End Try

✍️ Your code

Type your code, then press "Run"

🧪 This site can't compile or run VB.NET directly, so it checks on the spot whether what you typed matches the reference code (scoring happens entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere).