ArgumentException Class (System)

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.NET Framework Class Library
ArgumentException Class

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The exception that is thrown when one of the arguments provided to a method is not valid.

Inheritance Hierarchy

System.Object
  System.Exception
    System.SystemException
      System.ArgumentException
        More...

Namespace:  System
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Syntax

Visual Basic
<SerializableAttribute> _
<ComVisibleAttribute(True)> _
Public Class ArgumentException _
	Inherits SystemException _
	Implements ISerializable
C#
[SerializableAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public class ArgumentException : SystemException, 
	ISerializable
Visual C++
[SerializableAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public ref class ArgumentException : public SystemException, 
	ISerializable
F#
[<SerializableAttribute>]
[<ComVisibleAttribute(true)>]
type ArgumentException =  
    class
        inherit SystemException
        interface ISerializable
    end

The ArgumentException type exposes the following members.

Constructors

  Name Description
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library ArgumentException() Initializes a new instance of the ArgumentException class.
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library ArgumentException(String) Initializes a new instance of the ArgumentException class with a specified error message.
Protected method ArgumentException(SerializationInfo, StreamingContext) Initializes a new instance of the ArgumentException class with serialized data.
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library ArgumentException(String, Exception) Initializes a new instance of the ArgumentException class with a specified error message and a reference to the inner exception that is the cause of this exception.
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library ArgumentException(String, String) Initializes a new instance of the ArgumentException class with a specified error message and the name of the parameter that causes this exception.
Public method ArgumentException(String, String, Exception) Initializes a new instance of the ArgumentException class with a specified error message, the parameter name, and a reference to the inner exception that is the cause of this exception.
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Properties

  Name Description
Public property Data Gets a collection of key/value pairs that provide additional user-defined information about the exception. (Inherited from Exception.)
Public property HelpLink Gets or sets a link to the help file associated with this exception. (Inherited from Exception.)
Public property Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library HResult Gets or sets HRESULT, a coded numerical value that is assigned to a specific exception. (Inherited from Exception.)
Public property Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library InnerException Gets the Exception instance that caused the current exception. (Inherited from Exception.)
Public property Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library Message Gets the error message and the parameter name, or only the error message if no parameter name is set. (Overrides Exception.Message.)

In XNA Framework 3.0, this member is inherited from Exception.Message.


In Portable Class Library Portable Class Library, this member is inherited from Exception.Message.
Public property ParamName Gets the name of the parameter that causes this exception.
Public property Source Gets or sets the name of the application or the object that causes the error. (Inherited from Exception.)
Public property Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library StackTrace Gets a string representation of the immediate frames on the call stack. (Inherited from Exception.)
Public property TargetSite Gets the method that throws the current exception. (Inherited from Exception.)
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Methods

  Name Description
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library Equals(Object) Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library Finalize Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before it is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library GetBaseException When overridden in a derived class, returns the Exception that is the root cause of one or more subsequent exceptions. (Inherited from Exception.)
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library GetHashCode Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method GetObjectData Sets the SerializationInfo object with the parameter name and additional exception information. (Overrides Exception.GetObjectData(SerializationInfo, StreamingContext).)
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library GetType Gets the runtime type of the current instance. (Inherited from Exception.)

In XNA Framework 3.0, this member is inherited from Object.GetType().


In Portable Class Library Portable Class Library, this member is inherited from Object.GetType().
Protected method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library MemberwiseClone Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Supported by Portable Class Library ToString Creates and returns a string representation of the current exception. (Inherited from Exception.)
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Events

  Name Description
Protected event SerializeObjectState Occurs when an exception is serialized to create an exception state object that contains serialized data about the exception. (Inherited from Exception.)
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Remarks

ArgumentException is thrown when a method is invoked and at least one of the passed arguments does not meet the parameter specification of the called method. All instances of ArgumentException should carry a meaningful error message describing the invalid argument, as well as the expected range of values for the argument.

The primary derived classes of ArgumentException are ArgumentNullException and ArgumentOutOfRangeException. These derived classes should be used instead of ArgumentException, except in situations where neither of the derived classes is acceptable. For example, exceptions should be thrown by:

  • ArgumentNullException whenever null is passed to a method that does not accept it as a valid argument.

  • ArgumentOutOfRangeException when the value of an argument is outside the range of acceptable values; for example, when the value "46" is passed as the month argument during the creation of a DateTime.

If the method call does not have any argument or if the failure does not involve the arguments themselves, then InvalidOperationException should be used.

ArgumentException uses the HRESULT COR_E_ARGUMENT, which has the value 0x80070057.

For a list of initial property values for an instance of ArgumentException, see the ArgumentException constructors.

Examples

The following example demonstrates how to throw and catch an ArgumentException.

Visual Basic

Public Class App
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' ArgumentException is not thrown because 10 is an even number.
        Console.WriteLine("10 divided by 2 is {0}", DivideByTwo(10))
        Try 
            ' ArgumentException is thrown because 7 is not an even number.
            Console.WriteLine("7 divided by 2 is {0}", DivideByTwo(7))
        Catch Ex As ArgumentException
            ' Show the user that 7 cannot be divided by 2.
            Console.WriteLine("7 is not divided by 2 integrally.")
        End Try
    End Sub

    Private Shared Function DivideByTwo(ByVal num As Integer) As Integer
        ' If num is an odd number, throw an ArgumentException.
        If ((num And 1)  _
                    = 1) Then
            Throw New ArgumentException("Number must be even", "num")
        End If
        Return (num / 2)
    End Function
End Class
' This code produces the following output.
' 
' 10 divided by 2 is 5
' 7 is not divided by 2 integrally.


C#

using System;

public sealed class App 
{
    static void Main() 
    {
        // ArgumentException is not thrown because 10 is an even number.
        Console.WriteLine("10 divided by 2 is {0}", DivideByTwo(10));
        try 
        {
             // ArgumentException is thrown because 7 is not an even number.
             Console.WriteLine("7 divided by 2 is {0}", DivideByTwo(7));
        }
        catch (ArgumentException)
        {
            // Show the user that 7 cannot be divided by 2.
            Console.WriteLine("7 is not divided by 2 integrally.");
        }
    }

    static int DivideByTwo(int num) 
    {
        // If num is an odd number, throw an ArgumentException.
        if ((num & 1) == 1)
            throw new ArgumentException("Number must be even", "num");

        // num is even, return half of its value.
        return num / 2;
    }
}


// This code produces the following output.
// 
// 10 divided by 2 is 5
// 7 is not divided by 2 integrally.


Visual C++

using namespace System;

int DivideByTwo(int num)
{
    // If num is an odd number, throw an ArgumentException.
    if ((num & 1) == 1)
    {
        throw gcnew ArgumentException("Number must be even", "num");
    }
    // num is even, return half of its value.
    return num / 2;
}

int main()
{
    // ArgumentException is not thrown because 10 is an even number.
    Console::WriteLine("10 divided by 2 is {0}", DivideByTwo(10));
    try
    {
        // ArgumentException is thrown because 7 is not an even number.
        Console::WriteLine("7 divided by 2 is {0}", DivideByTwo(7));
    }
    catch (ArgumentException^)
    {
        // Show the user that 7 cannot be divided by 2.
        Console::WriteLine("7 is not divided by 2 integrally.");
    }
}

// This code produces the following output.
//
// 10 divided by 2 is 5
// 7 is not divided by 2 integrally.


Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 4.5, 4, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1

Portable Class Library

Supported in: Portable Class Library
Platforms

Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Windows Server 8 Beta, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.
See Also

Reference

Other Resources

Inheritance Hierarchy

System.Object
  System.Exception
    System.SystemException
      System.ArgumentException
        System.ArgumentNullException
        System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException
        System.ComponentModel.InvalidAsynchronousStateException
        System.ComponentModel.InvalidEnumArgumentException
        System.DuplicateWaitObjectException
        System.Globalization.CultureNotFoundException
        System.IO.Log.ReservationNotFoundException
        System.Text.DecoderFallbackException
        System.Text.EncoderFallbackException