Learning Elixir: Error Handling with try/rescue/catch/after

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I’ve published a new article in my Elixir learning series on dev.to exploring what happens when tagged tuples aren’t enough - the try, rescue, catch, and after constructs for truly unexpected failures.

The article covers:

  • When to use try/rescue vs the {:ok, value} / {:error, reason} pattern
  • Understanding Elixir’s built-in exception types
  • Rescuing exceptions with multiple clauses and inspecting __STACKTRACE__
  • Defining custom exceptions with defexception
  • Using catch for throws and exits - including why catch does NOT trap exit signals from other processes (I learned this the hard way)
  • The after clause for guaranteed cleanup
  • Practical guidelines for combining both error handling approaches

With complete working examples you can copy into IEx, you’ll learn when exceptions are the right tool - and when the “let it crash” philosophy serves you better.
Check it out: