Why isn't Try/Catch used more often in JavaScript? [closed]

No it's not flawed, but for synchronous code it's typically easier and cleaner to check things with your own code than use a clunky try{}catch(e){}.

example:

var container = document.getElementById("timmy");
container.innerHTML = "I'm timmy!";

If there's no element whose ID is "timmy", we can handle that either like this:

try
{
    container.innerHTML = "I'm timmy";
}
catch (error)
{
    //handle no container
}

or:

if(container) container.innerHTML = "I'm timmy";
else //handle no container

Another thing to keep in mind is JavaScript applications are event-driven and try/catch blocks in the main part of your program can't catch errors that occur in event callbacks.

example:

sqlConnection.query("SELECT * FROM table", 
    function(){console.log("queried!");});

that will trigger some native code that runs as your program continues. If an error occurs, you can't expect your program to back-track up to this line so your error handler can do its stuff! Instead, you handle errors in the call-back itself. It is common practice to provide callbacks with any error that occurred by passing it as the first parameter.

sqlConnection.query("SELECT * FROM table", 
    function(error, data){
        if(error) console.log("query failed");
        else console.log("queried!");
    });

Alternatively, if your code fails in a callback, you can handle it the way I mentioned above.

link.onclick = function(e)
{
    var popUp = document.getElementById("popup");
    if(!popUp)
        return true; //follow link if no pop-up exists
    popUp.style.display = "block";
};

The async nature of most javascript code hides the try/catch at a low level and then calls an error callback.

Most heavy code in js is async and uses a callback or promise pattern. The other code is simple and does not require try/catch.

If you dig into js libraries (pick your favorite) you will find the try/catch blocks that wrap much of the heavy app code that executes in modern js applications. These libraries then call the error or fail callback that you see in many js code samples.

I believe that there is more overhead with a try/catch as opposed to an if statement, although i think it only matter when the exception is actually thrown. I use try/catches often, but only if I know there will be a good chance an exception could be thrown.

If used efficiently there is really no reason to not use a try/catch.

JavaScript doesn't need them much, the reason is, there is hardly any reason to catch errors, because, one error does not stop the entire script. Javascript is event driven, most functions run when a specific event occurs, and it is client side, so if anything goes wrong, it goes wrong, catching and handling the error would be hardly any beneficial. only my view.