Yes, the finally block gets executed, if an exception occurs.
A finally block will be executed irrespective of the exception has occured or not.
Example:
public class EHClass
{
void ReadFile(int index)
{
// To run this code, substitute a valid path from your local machine
string path = @"c:\users\public\test.txt";
System.IO.StreamReader file = new System.IO.StreamReader(path);
char[] buffer = new char[10];
try
{
file.ReadBlock(buffer, index, buffer.Length);
}
catch (System.IO.IOException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Error reading from {0}. Message = {1}", path, e.Message);
}
finally
{
if (file != null)
{
file.Close();
}
}
// Do something with buffer...
}
}
Finally is used to ensure that some cleanup is performed.
In the above example, you might try to open a file and read it. If opening succeeds, but read fails, you will have an open file dangling. What you would like in that case is to have it closed, which you would do in finally block - this block always gets executed, guaranteeing the closing of the file.