Try-Catch not handling errors with an https.get request in Node

Question

I have an https.get request in Node for which I need to handle the errors - preferably in a try-catch block. For instance, when the url is incorrect

I have tried wrapping the https.get block in a try catch and I have tried handling with res.on('error'). It seems as if in both instances the error doesn't reach the error handling block.

const https = require('https');

const hitApi = () => {

    const options = {
        "hostname": "api.kanye.rest"
    };

    try {
        https.get(options, res => {

            let body = '';


            res.on('data', data => {
                body += data;
            });

            res.on('end', () => {
                body = JSON.parse(body);
                console.dir(body);
            });

        });

    } catch (error) {
        throw error;
    }
}

hitApi();

If I change the url to a nonexistent API (eg api.kaye.rest) I would expect to see a handled e.rror response. Instead I see 'Unhandled error event'

Answer 1

The reason why try...catch.. fails is that it is meant for handling synchronous errors. https.get() is asynchronous and cannot be handled with a usual try..catch..

Use req.on('error',function(e){}); to handle the error. Like so:

var https = require('https');

var options = {
  hostname: 'encrypted.google.com',
  port: 443,
  path: '/',
  method: 'GET'
};

var req = https.request(options, function(res) {
  console.log("statusCode: ", res.statusCode);
  console.log("headers: ", res.headers);

  res.on('data', function(d) {
    process.stdout.write(d);
  });
});
req.end();
// Error handled here.
req.on('error', function(e) {
  console.error(e);
});

You can read more about the same in the documentation over here