Handling Errors in Ruby: Best Practices for Rescuing Exceptions

When working with Ruby, errors and exceptions are an inevitable part of the development process. While errors can be frustrating, they provide valuable insights into the performance and behavior of your code. In this article, we will discuss best practices for handling errors in Ruby using the example of a payment processing function.

Consider the following code snippet:

begin
  print "in the payment next: #{order_details[0].next!} n"
  print "payment after payment state name: #{order_details[0].state_name} n"
  print "making payment #{payment.authorize!} n"
  print "update order: #{order_details[0].update({state: "complete",completed_at:Time.now})} n"
  print "after payment next: #{order_details[0].finalize!} n"
  future_order.update(status: 'Completed')
rescue Exception => e
  future_order.update(status: 'Failed')
end

This code performs a payment processing function by updating the status of an order. If an error occurs during payment processing, the code will rescue the exception and update the order status to “Failed”.

However, rescuing exceptions in Ruby should be done with caution. While it can be tempting to rescue all exceptions with a catch-all rescue block, it is generally recommended to only rescue specific exceptions that you anticipate.

For example, if you anticipate that the payment processing function may encounter a network error, you can rescue the SocketError exception:

begin
  # payment processing code
rescue SocketError => e
  puts "Network error: #{e.message}"
  # handle the error
end

You can also rescue multiple exceptions by listing them after the rescue keyword:

begin
  # payment processing code
rescue SocketError, TimeoutError => e
  puts "Error: #{e.message}"
  # handle the error
end

In addition to rescuing specific exceptions, you can also add custom error handling logic. For example, you may want to log the error or send a notification to an administrator:

begin
  # payment processing code
rescue SocketError, TimeoutError => e
  puts "Error: #{e.message}"
  logger.error("Payment processing failed: #{e.message}")
  admin.notify("Payment processing failed: #{e.message}")
  # handle the error
end

In conclusion, when handling errors in Ruby, it is important to use specific exception handling, and include custom error handling logic when needed. This will help you to create robust and reliable applications that can handle unexpected errors gracefully.