All objects thrown by components of the standard library are derived from this class. Therefore, all standard exceptions can be caught by catching this type by reference.

It is declared as:

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class exception {
public:
  exception () throw();
  exception (const exception&) throw();
  exception& operator= (const exception&) throw();
  virtual ~exception() throw();
  virtual const char* what() const throw();
}

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class exception {
public:
  exception () noexcept;
  exception (const exception&) noexcept;
  exception& operator= (const exception&) noexcept;
  virtual ~exception();
  virtual const char* what() const noexcept;
}

Member functions

(constructor)

Construct exception (public member function)

operator=

Copy exception (public member function)

what (virtual)

Get string identifying exception (public member function)

(destructor) (virtual)

Destroy exception (public virtual member function)

Derived types (scattered throughout different library headers)

bad_alloc

Exception thrown on failure allocating memory (class)

bad_cast

Exception thrown on failure to dynamic cast (class)

bad_exception

Exception thrown by unexpected handler (class)

bad_function_call

Exception thrown on bad call (class)

bad_typeid

Exception thrown on typeid of null pointer (class)

bad_weak_ptr

Bad weak pointer (class)

ios_base::failure

Base class for stream exceptions (public member class)

logic_error

Logic error exception (class)

runtime_error

Runtime error exception (class)

domain_error

Domain error exception (class)

future_error

Future error exception (class)

invalid_argument

Invalid argument exception (class)

length_error

Length error exception (class)

out_of_range

Out-of-range exception (class)

overflow_error

Overflow error exception (class)

range_error

Range error exception (class)

system_error

System error exception (class)

underflow_error

Underflow error exception (class)

bad_array_new_length

Exception on bad array length (class)

ios_base::failure

Base class for stream exceptions (public member class)

Example

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// exception example
#include <iostream>       // std::cerr
#include <typeinfo>       // operator typeid
#include <exception>      // std::exception

class Polymorphic {virtual void member(){}};

int main () {
  try
  {
    Polymorphic * pb = 0;
    typeid(*pb);  // throws a bad_typeid exception
  }
  catch (std::exception& e)
  {
    std::cerr << "exception caught: " << e.what() << '\n';
  }
  return 0;
}

exception caught: St10bad_typeid