[ios] Swift 2: Call can throw, but it is not marked with 'try' and the error is not handled

After I installed Xcode 7 beta and convert my swift code to Swift 2, I got some issue with the code that I can't figure out. I know Swift 2 is new so I search and figure out since there is nothing about it, I should write a question.

Here is the error:

Call can throw, but it is not marked with 'try' and the error is not handled

Code:

func deleteAccountDetail(){
        let entityDescription = NSEntityDescription.entityForName("AccountDetail", inManagedObjectContext: Context!)
        let request = NSFetchRequest()
        request.entity = entityDescription

        //The Line Below is where i expect the error
        let fetchedEntities = self.Context!.executeFetchRequest(request) as! [AccountDetail]

        for entity in fetchedEntities {
        self.Context!.deleteObject(entity)
        }

        do {
            try self.Context!.save()
        } catch _ {
        }

    }

Snapshot:

When calling a function that is declared with throws in Swift, you must annotate the function call site with try or try!. For example, given a throwing function:

func willOnlyThrowIfTrue(value: Bool) throws {
  if value { throw someError }
}

this function can be called like:

func foo(value: Bool) throws {
  try willOnlyThrowIfTrue(value)
}

Here we annotate the call with try, which calls out to the reader that this function may throw an exception, and any following lines of code might not be executed. We also have to annotate this function with throws, because this function could throw an exception (i.e., when willOnlyThrowIfTrue() throws, then foo will automatically rethrow the exception upwards.

If you want to call a function that is declared as possibly throwing, but which you know will not throw in your case because you're giving it correct input, you can use try!.

func bar() {
  try! willOnlyThrowIfTrue(false)
}

This way, when you guarantee that code won't throw, you don't have to put in extra boilerplate code to disable exception propagation.

try! is enforced at runtime: if you use try! and the function does end up throwing, then your program's execution will be terminated with a runtime error.

Most exception handling code should look like the above: either you simply propagate exceptions upward when they occur, or you set up conditions such that otherwise possible exceptions are ruled out. Any clean up of other resources in your code should occur via object destruction (i.e. deinit()), or sometimes via defered code.

func baz(value: Bool) throws {

  var filePath = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource("theFile", ofType:"txt")
  var data = NSData(contentsOfFile:filePath)

  try willOnlyThrowIfTrue(value)

  // data and filePath automatically cleaned up, even when an exception occurs.
}

If for whatever reason you have clean up code that needs to run but isn't in a deinit() function, you can use defer.

func qux(value: Bool) throws {
  defer {
    print("this code runs when the function exits, even when it exits by an exception")
  }

  try willOnlyThrowIfTrue(value)
}

Most code that deals with exceptions simply has them propagate upward to callers, doing cleanup on the way via deinit() or defer. This is because most code doesn't know what to do with errors; it knows what went wrong, but it doesn't have enough information about what some higher level code is trying to do in order to know what to do about the error. It doesn't know if presenting a dialog to the user is appropriate, or if it should retry, or if something else is appropriate.

Higher level code, however, should know exactly what to do in the event of any error. So exceptions allow specific errors to bubble up from where they initially occur to the where they can be handled.

Handling exceptions is done via catch statements.

func quux(value: Bool) {
  do {
    try willOnlyThrowIfTrue(value)
  } catch {
    // handle error
  }
}

You can have multiple catch statements, each catching a different kind of exception.

  do {
    try someFunctionThatThowsDifferentExceptions()
  } catch MyErrorType.errorA {
    // handle errorA
  } catch MyErrorType.errorB {
    // handle errorB
  } catch {
    // handle other errors
  }

For more details on best practices with exceptions, see http://exceptionsafecode.com/. It's specifically aimed at C++, but after examining the Swift exception model, I believe the basics apply to Swift as well.

For details on the Swift syntax and error handling model, see the book The Swift Programming Language (Swift 2 Prerelease).