Try Without Catch In JavaScript (Updated for 2023)

If you want to try some code and not handle the exception, it can seem annoying that you have to include a catch:

try {
  throw new Error();
} catch (e) {
  // ignore error
}
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

ES2019 (released in 2019) allows us to simplify the above code a bit with optional catch binding in which the error variable does not need to be specified:

try {
  throw new Error();
} catch { }
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Currently, this is the shortest way to catch and ignore an error in JavaScript.

Technically, it is possible to have a try without a catch, but you would be required to have a finally and it might not do what you are expecting.

try {
  throw new Error();
} finally {
  // the Error will still be thrown!
}
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

In the above code, the Error will still be thrown.

So, if you are wanting to run code and ignore an error you must use catch.