You would use it to ensure some actions occur after the try content or on an exception, but when you don't wish to consume that exception.
Just to be clear, this doesn't hide exceptions. The finally block is run before the exception is propagated up the call stack.
You would also inadvertently use it when you use the using keyword, because this compiles into a try-finally (not an exact conversion, but for argument's sake it is close enough).
Code running in finally is not guaranteed to run, however the case where it isn't guaranteed is fairly edge - I can't even remember it. All I remember is, if you are in that case, chances are very good that not running the finally isn't your biggest problem :-) so basically don't sweat it.
Update from Tobias:finally will not run if the process is killed.
You need a finally block, when no matter which (if any) exceptions are caught or even if none are caught you still want to execute some code before the block exits. For instance, you might want to close an open file.
try/finally: when you do not want to handle any exceptions but want to ensure some action(s) occur whether or not an exception is thrown by called code.
If you have, for example an unmanaged resource you create and use in the try block, you can use the finally block to ensure you release that resource. The finally block will always be executed despite what happens (e.g. exceptions) in the try block.
I don't know anything about C#, but it seems that anything you could do with a try-finally, you could more elegantly do with a using statement. C++ doesn't even have a finally as a result of its RAII.
void MyMethod1()
{
try
{
MyMethod2();
MyMethod3();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
//do something with the exception
}
}
void MyMethod2()
{
try
{
//perform actions that need cleaning up
}
finally
{
//clean up
}
}
void MyMethod3()
{
//do something
}
If either MyMethod2 or MyMethod3 throws an exception, it will be caught by MyMethod1. However, the code in MyMethod2 needs to run clean up code, e.g. closing a database connection, before the exception is passed to MyMethod1.
Here is a situation where you might want to use try finally: when you would normally use a using statement, but can't because you are calling a method by reflection.
This won't work
using (objMsg = Activator.CreateInstance(TypeAssist.GetTypeFromTypeName("omApp.MessagingBO")))
{
}