A: By keeping along with the C++ tradition of "there's more than one method to do that" (translation: "give programmers options & tradeoffs so they can choose what's best for them in their situation"), C++ let you a variety of options for catching.

Ø  Catch by value.

Ø  Catch by reference.

Ø  Catch by pointer.

Actually, you have all the flexibility that you have in declaring function parameters, and the rules for whether a specific exception matches (that means will be caught by) a specific catch clause are almost accurately the same as the rules for parameter compatibility while calling a function.

Given all this flexibility, how do you choose what to catch? Simple: unless there's a good motive not to, catch by reference. Avoid catching by value, as that causes a copy to be made and the copy can have distinct behavior from what was thrown. Only under extremely special circumstances should you catch by pointer.