SDL_Surface* myFunction() {

/* code for creating the surface...
*********
*/ 
int tryOnce = 0;

if(tempSurface != nullptr) {
   // all is good
   return tempSurface;
} else if(tryOnce < 1) {
   ++tryOnce;
   myFunction();
} else {
   SDL_Log("log error");
   throw "caught error... exiting";
}
                      

Hello,

I wrote a simple program.

It returns surfaces in several functions , but I want to check to see the surface is not a nullptr before returning it and if it is ,

call the same function once more to try to load the image to the surface or whatever, and  if that fails to throw an exception which

will exit the game.  
Is this a bad way to do it , it seems to excessive to end the game but I'm a beginner and really don't want to get too deep into everything yet.

?

thanks

Thanks I read the topic about exceptions , so they are discouraged altogether ?

should I just test with the if/ else part of the code, I understand the bug you meant.  A for loop would work but I'm still not sure if it makes sense to try to load the function again , and how many times to try , it seems very vague and like bad practice?

Should I otherwise just add:

if (tempSurface!=nullptr) { return tempSurface;}

else throw "some exception occurred ";

or is this remaining code pointless beginners junk ?thnks

so I should do nothing to error check if a surface is a nullptr  either ? 

I thought doing that makes sense at least ?  but if it's a nullptr what should I do then ?

if I leave the if/else with the throw it's acceptable code at least ? thanks

There's also a broader reply I want to give here.

If you try to create an SDL_Surface and it fails, you're in one of 2 situations:

• You are out of system resources in some way - like system memory, or GPU texture memory. Trying again will not succeed because you'll still be out of resources.
• You are doing something wrong, like passing the wrong parameters. Trying again will not succeed because those parameters will still be incorrect.

As such there is almost never a time when, after calling a function and seeing it fail, you'd want to call it again. So don't do that.

In this situation I don't think it matters whether you check for a null pointer or whether you throw an exception; if you couldn't create a graphic then the game is in a bad state and you probably can't proceed, so you'll almost certainly want to end the program immediately (after logging the nature of the problem, so you can diagnose it).