C++ Exceptions questions on rethrow of original exception

In both cases, since you catch by reference, you are effectively altering the state of the original exception object (which you can think of as residing in a magical memory location which will stay valid during the subsequent unwinding — 0x98e7058 in the example below). However,

1. In the first case, since you rethrow with throw; (which, unlike throw err;, preserves the original exception object, with your modifications, in said “magical location” at 0x98e7058) will reflect the call to append()
2. In the second case, since you throw something explicitly, a copy of err will be created then thrown anew (at a different “magical location” 0x98e70b0 — because for all the compiler knows err could be an object on the stack about to be unwinded, like e was at 0xbfbce430, not in the “magical location” at 0x98e7058), so you will lose derived-class-specific data during the copy-construction of a base class instance.

Simple program to illustrate what’s happening:

#include <stdio.h>

struct MyErr {
  MyErr() {
    printf("  Base default constructor, this=%p\n", this);
  }
  MyErr(const MyErr& other) {
    printf("  Base copy-constructor, this=%p from that=%p\n", this, &other);
  }
  virtual ~MyErr() {
    printf("  Base destructor, this=%p\n", this);
  }
};

struct MyErrDerived : public MyErr {
  MyErrDerived() {
    printf("  Derived default constructor, this=%p\n", this);
  }
  MyErrDerived(const MyErrDerived& other) {
    printf("  Derived copy-constructor, this=%p from that=%p\n", this, &other);
  }
  virtual ~MyErrDerived() {
    printf("  Derived destructor, this=%p\n", this);
  }
};

int main() {
  try {
    try {
      MyErrDerived e;
      throw e;
    } catch (MyErr& err) {
      printf("A Inner catch, &err=%p\n", &err);
      throw;
    }
  } catch (MyErr& err) {
    printf("A Outer catch, &err=%p\n", &err);
  }
  printf("---\n");
  try {
    try {
      MyErrDerived e;
      throw e;
    } catch (MyErr& err) {
      printf("B Inner catch, &err=%p\n", &err);
      throw err;
    }
  } catch (MyErr& err) {
    printf("B Outer catch, &err=%p\n", &err);
  }
  return 0;
}

Result:

  Base default constructor, this=0xbfbce430
  Derived default constructor, this=0xbfbce430
  Base default constructor, this=0x98e7058
  Derived copy-constructor, this=0x98e7058 from that=0xbfbce430
  Derived destructor, this=0xbfbce430
  Base destructor, this=0xbfbce430
A Inner catch, &err=0x98e7058
A Outer catch, &err=0x98e7058
  Derived destructor, this=0x98e7058
  Base destructor, this=0x98e7058
---
  Base default constructor, this=0xbfbce430
  Derived default constructor, this=0xbfbce430
  Base default constructor, this=0x98e7058
  Derived copy-constructor, this=0x98e7058 from that=0xbfbce430
  Derived destructor, this=0xbfbce430
  Base destructor, this=0xbfbce430
B Inner catch, &err=0x98e7058
  Base copy-constructor, this=0x98e70b0 from that=0x98e7058
  Derived destructor, this=0x98e7058
  Base destructor, this=0x98e7058
B Outer catch, &err=0x98e70b0
  Base destructor, this=0x98e70b0

Also see:

• Scope of exception object in C++
• Throwing … “by reference”