Exception Handling in VB.net – Try, Catch, Finally, and Throw

VB.NET Exception Handling

Exceptions in VB.net provide a way to transfer control from one part of a program to another.

VB.net Exception Handling is built upon four keywords – Try, Catch, Finally, and Throw.

Try Exception

A Try Exception in VB.net is used to keep track of a specific exception that the program might throw.

And it always comes after one or more catch blocks to deal with these exceptions.

Catch Exception in VB.net

Catch Exception in VB.net is a section of code that, when a problem occurs in a program, handles the exception with an exception handler.

Finally Exception

Finally, Exception in VB.net is used to execute a set of statements in a program, whether an exception has occurred.

Throw Exception

A Throw Exception in VB.net is used to throw an exception following the occurrence of a problem, as the name suggests.

What is Exception in VB.net?

An Exception in VB.net is an unwanted error that occurs during the execution of a program and can be a system exception or application exception.

Exceptions are nothing but some abnormal and typically an event or condition that arises during the execution, which may interrupt the normal flow of the program.

Syntax of Exception Handling in VB.net

A method catches an exception by combining the Try and Catch keywords, presuming a block will generate an exception.

The code that might cause an exception is enclosed in a Try/Catch block.

Protected code is code that is contained within a Try/Catch block.

Here’s the Syntax for using Try/Catch looks like the following:

Try
[ tryStatements ]
[ Exit Try ]
[ Catch [ exception [ As type ] ] [ When expression ]
[ catchStatements ]
[ Exit Try ] ]
[ Catch ... ]
[ Finally
[ finallyStatements ] ]
End Try

If your try block raises more than one exception in different circumstances, you can list down multiple catch statements to catch the various exception types.

Exception Classes in VB.net

In the .Net Framework, exceptions are represented by classes.

The exception classes in .Net Framework are mainly directly or indirectly derived from the System.Exception class.

Some of the exception classes are derived from the System.Exception class is the System.ApplicationException and System.SystemException classes.

The System.ApplicationException class supports exceptions generated by application programs.

So the exceptions defined by the programmers should derive from this class.

The System.SystemException class is the base class for all predefined system exceptions.

The following table provides some of the predefined exception classes derived from the Sytem.SystemException class.

Handling Exceptions in VB.net

Try and catch blocks, a structured approach to the exception handling issues, are provided by VB.net.

The main program statements and the error-handling statements are divided using these blocks.

These error-handling blocks are implemented using the Try, Catch, and Finally keywords.

Following is an example of throwing an exception when dividing by zero condition occurs:

Module exceptionProg
   Sub division(ByVal num1 As Integer, ByVal num2 As Integer)
      Dim result As Integer
      Try
         result = num1 \ num2
      Catch e As DivideByZeroException
         Console.WriteLine("Exception caught: {0}", e)
      Finally
         Console.WriteLine("Result: {0}", result)
      End Try
   End Sub
   Sub Main()
      division(25, 0)
      Console.ReadKey()
  End Sub
End Module

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Exception caught: System.DivideByZeroException: Attempted to divide by zero.

You can test the above example here! ➡ VB.net Online Compiler

Creating User-Defined Exceptions in VB.net

You can create your own exceptions as well. ApplicationException is a base class from which user-defined exception classes are derived.

Example program in Creating User-Defined Exceptions in VB.net:

Module exceptionProg
   Public Class TempIsZeroException : Inherits ApplicationException
      Public Sub New(ByVal message As String)
         MyBase.New(message)
      End Sub
   End Class
   Public Class Temperature
      Dim temperature As Integer = 0
      Sub showTemp()
         If (temperature = 0) Then
            Throw (New TempIsZeroException("Zero Temperature found"))
         Else
            Console.WriteLine("Temperature: {0}", temperature)
         End If
      End Sub
   End Class
   Sub Main()
      Dim temp As Temperature = New Temperature()
      Try
         temp.showTemp()
      Catch e As TempIsZeroException
         Console.WriteLine("TempIsZeroException: {0}", e.Message)
      End Try
      Console.ReadKey()
   End Sub
End Module

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

TempIsZeroException: Zero Temperature found

You can test the above example here! ➡ VB.net Online Compiler

Throwing Objects in VB.net

You can throw an object if it is either directly or indirectly derived from the System.Exception class.

You can use a throw statement in the catch block to throw the present object as:

Throw [ expression ]

Example Program of Throwing Objects in VB.net:

Module exceptionProg
   Sub Main()
      Try
         Throw New ApplicationException("A custom exception _ is being thrown here...")
      Catch e As Exception
         Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
      Finally
         Console.WriteLine("Now inside the Finally Block")
      End Try
      Console.ReadKey()
   End Sub
End Module

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

A custom exception _ is being thrown here…
Now inside the Finally Block

You can test the above example here! ➡ VB.net Online Compiler

Summary

An exception refers to a problem that arises during program execution brought about by an unexpected circumstance.

If you suspect that some code will generate an exception, surround it with a Try/Catch block.

The Finally block comes after the Try/Catch block and executes whether an exception is caught or not. VB.net allows us to create custom exceptions.

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Common use cases for Exception Handling

Exception Handling shows up frequently in production VB.NET codebases. The most common patterns:

• Business logic layer. Encapsulate rules and workflows separate from the UI.
• Data access patterns. Bridge between UI events and database operations cleanly.
• Utility helpers. Reusable methods for string processing, date arithmetic, or format conversion.
• Integration with .NET libraries. Interoperate with System.IO, System.Net, System.Text.RegularExpressions, and more.
• Legacy migration. Modernize VB6 code by wrapping old logic in idiomatic VB.NET constructs.

Working code example

Public Module Program

    Public Sub Main(args As String())
        ' Practical demonstration of Exception Handling
        Dim result As String = ProcessData("sample input")
        Console.WriteLine("Result: " & result)
        Console.ReadKey()
    End Sub

    Private Function ProcessData(input As String) As String
        If String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(input) Then
            Return "empty"
        End If
        Return input.ToUpper()
    End Function

End Module

Best practices when working with Exception Handling

• Explicit typing. Enable Option Strict On at the project level to force compile-time type checking.
• Namespace hygiene. Group related types under project-specific namespaces to avoid conflicts with .NET Framework types.
• Consistent naming. Follow Microsoft’s VB.NET style guide: PascalCase for public members, camelCase for locals.
• Error handling with Try/Catch. Prefer specific exception types over catch-all Exception blocks.
• Modern language features. Use string interpolation, LINQ, and Async/Await where they clarify intent.

Common pitfalls

• Late binding. Without Option Strict, VB.NET falls back to late-binding, hiding bugs until runtime.
• Nothing vs empty string. String.IsNullOrEmpty and String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace catch both cases; avoid checking IsNothing alone.
• Integer overflow. Use Long or Decimal for arithmetic that may exceed Int32.MaxValue.
• Date parsing across cultures. Always pass CultureInfo.InvariantCulture when serializing dates for storage.

Angel Jude Suarez

Full-Stack Developer at PIES IT Solution

Focuses on Python development, machine learning, and AI integration. Has built production AI systems including OpenAI Whisper integration for medical transcription and GPT-4o-powered diagnosis assistance. Strong background in pandas, scikit-learn, and TensorFlow.

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