Do try/catch blocks hurt performance when exceptions are not thrown?

After seeing all the stats for with try/catch and without try/catch, curiosity forced me to look behind to see what is generated for both the cases. Here is the code:

C#:

private static void TestWithoutTryCatch(){
    Console.WriteLine("SIN(1) = {0} - No Try/Catch", Math.Sin(1)); 
}

MSIL:

.method private hidebysig static void  TestWithoutTryCatch() cil managed
{
  // Code size       32 (0x20)
  .maxstack  8
  IL_0000:  nop
  IL_0001:  ldstr      "SIN(1) = {0} - No Try/Catch"
  IL_0006:  ldc.r8     1.
  IL_000f:  call       float64 [mscorlib]System.Math::Sin(float64)
  IL_0014:  box        [mscorlib]System.Double
  IL_0019:  call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string,
                                                                object)
  IL_001e:  nop
  IL_001f:  ret
} // end of method Program::TestWithoutTryCatch

C#:

private static void TestWithTryCatch(){
    try{
        Console.WriteLine("SIN(1) = {0}", Math.Sin(1)); 
    }
    catch (Exception ex){
        Console.WriteLine(ex);
    }
}

MSIL:

.method private hidebysig static void  TestWithTryCatch() cil managed
{
  // Code size       49 (0x31)
  .maxstack  2
  .locals init ([0] class [mscorlib]System.Exception ex)
  IL_0000:  nop
  .try
  {
    IL_0001:  nop
    IL_0002:  ldstr      "SIN(1) = {0}"
    IL_0007:  ldc.r8     1.
    IL_0010:  call       float64 [mscorlib]System.Math::Sin(float64)
    IL_0015:  box        [mscorlib]System.Double
    IL_001a:  call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string,
                                                                  object)
    IL_001f:  nop
    IL_0020:  nop
    IL_0021:  leave.s    IL_002f //JUMP IF NO EXCEPTION
  }  // end .try
  catch [mscorlib]System.Exception 
  {
    IL_0023:  stloc.0
    IL_0024:  nop
    IL_0025:  ldloc.0
    IL_0026:  call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(object)
    IL_002b:  nop
    IL_002c:  nop
    IL_002d:  leave.s    IL_002f
  }  // end handler
  IL_002f:  nop
  IL_0030:  ret
} // end of method Program::TestWithTryCatch

I'm not an expert in IL but we can see that an local exception object is created on fourth line .locals init ([0] class [mscorlib]System.Exception ex) after that things are pretty same as for method without try/catch till the line seventeen IL_0021: leave.s IL_002f. If an exception occurs the control jumps to line IL_0025: ldloc.0 otherwise we jump to label IL_002d: leave.s IL_002f and function returns.

I can safely assume that if no exceptions occur then it is the overhead of creating local variables to hold exception objects only and a jump instruction.


Check it.

static public void Main(string[] args)
{
    Stopwatch w = new Stopwatch();
    double d = 0;

    w.Start();

    for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++)
    {
        try
        {
            d = Math.Sin(1);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
        }
    }

    w.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(w.Elapsed);
    w.Reset();
    w.Start();

    for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++)
    {
        d = Math.Sin(1);
    }

    w.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(w.Elapsed);
}

Output:

00:00:00.4269033  // with try/catch
00:00:00.4260383  // without.

In milliseconds:

449
416

New code:

for (int j = 0; j < 10; j++)
{
    Stopwatch w = new Stopwatch();
    double d = 0;
    w.Start();

    for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++)
    {
        try
        {
            d = Math.Sin(d);
        }

        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
        }

        finally
        {
            d = Math.Sin(d);
        }
    }

    w.Stop();
    Console.Write("   try/catch/finally: ");
    Console.WriteLine(w.ElapsedMilliseconds);
    w.Reset();
    d = 0;
    w.Start();

    for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++)
    {
        d = Math.Sin(d);
        d = Math.Sin(d);
    }

    w.Stop();
    Console.Write("No try/catch/finally: ");
    Console.WriteLine(w.ElapsedMilliseconds);
    Console.WriteLine();
}

New results:

   try/catch/finally: 382
No try/catch/finally: 332

   try/catch/finally: 375
No try/catch/finally: 332

   try/catch/finally: 376
No try/catch/finally: 333

   try/catch/finally: 375
No try/catch/finally: 330

   try/catch/finally: 373
No try/catch/finally: 329

   try/catch/finally: 373
No try/catch/finally: 330

   try/catch/finally: 373
No try/catch/finally: 352

   try/catch/finally: 374
No try/catch/finally: 331

   try/catch/finally: 380
No try/catch/finally: 329

   try/catch/finally: 374
No try/catch/finally: 334