How could we handle ReadItemAsync if item not existed in collection

For the ReadItemAsync() method, if an item does not exist in the collection, will throw a CosmosException of status code “NotFound” (e.g, catch(CosmosException ex) when (ex.StatusCode == System.Net.HttpStatusCode.NotFound)), so instead of implementing the business logic in the catch(...) statement, could we just handle the item not existed case outside the catch statement but in the try statment? For example, if the ItemResponse<T> could contain some flag to identity if the item existed or not? or is there a way just by check if (itemResponse<T>.Resource == null) ?

Thank you very much for your help!

[j82w]

You could do something like this:

ItemResponse<ToDoActivity> response = null;
            try
            {
                response = await this.Container.ReadItemAsync<ToDoActivity>();
            }
            catch (CosmosException ex) when (ex.StatusCode == System.Net.HttpStatusCode.NotFound) { }

            if(response == null)
            {

            }

if(

[j82w]

This is a very long running debate. We initially started v3 out with it returning null. We got feedback from central .NET team and central SDK team that it should throw. The reason why is 404 is considered an exception according to the http standard and most developers expect it throw. We had several users report it thinking it was a bug.

If you want you can use the Stream APIs. They only throw argument exceptions, and return all other exceptions as a status code.

T item = null;
using(ResponseMessage responseMessage = await this.Container.ReadItemStreamAsync())
{
    if(responseMessage.StatusCode == System.Net.HttpStatusCode.NotFound){
       // Do other logic
    }

    item = jsonSerializer.Deserialize<T>(responseMessage.Content);
}