Chapter 12 Exception Handling

1
 Motivations
When a program runs into a runtime error, the
program terminates abnormally. How can you
handle the runtime error so that the program can
continue to run or terminate gracefully? This is the
subject we will introduce in this chapter.

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 Exception-Handling Overview
Show runtime error
Quotient Run

Fix it using an if statement

QuotientWithIf Run

With a method
QuotientWithMethod Run

4
 Exception Advantages

QuotientWithException Run

Now you see the advantages of using exception handling.

It enables a method to throw an exception to its caller.
Without this capability, a method must handle the
exception or terminate the program.

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 Handling InputMismatchException

InputMismatchExceptionDemo Run

By handling InputMismatchException, your program will

continuously read an input until it is correct.

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 Exception Types
ClassNotFoundException

ArithmeticException
IOException

Exception NullPointerException
RuntimeException
IndexOutOfBoundsException
Many more classes
Object Throwable IllegalArgumentException

Many more classes

LinkageError

Error VirtualMachineError

Many more classes

7
 System Errors
ClassNotFoundException

ArithmeticException
IOException

Exception NullPointerException
RuntimeException
IndexOutOfBoundsException
Many more classes
Object Throwable IllegalArgumentException

Many more classes

System errors are thrown by JVM
and represented in the Error class. LinkageError
The Error class describes internal
system errors. Such errors rarely Error VirtualMachineError
occur. If one does, there is little
you can do beyond notifying the
Many more classes
user and trying to terminate the
program gracefully.

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 Exceptions
Exception describes errors
caused by your program ClassNotFoundException
and external ArithmeticException
circumstances. These IOException
errors can be caught and Exception NullPointerException
handled by your program.
RuntimeException
IndexOutOfBoundsException
Many more classes
Object Throwable IllegalArgumentException

Many more classes

LinkageError

Error VirtualMachineError

Many more classes

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 Runtime Exceptions
ClassNotFoundException

ArithmeticException
IOException

Exception NullPointerException
RuntimeException
IndexOutOfBoundsException
Many more classes
Object Throwable IllegalArgumentException

Many more classes

LinkageError
RuntimeException is caused by
programming errors, such as bad
Error VirtualMachineError casting, accessing an out-of-bounds
array, and numeric errors.
Many more classes

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 Checked Exceptions vs.
Unchecked Exceptions

RuntimeException, Error and their subclasses are

known as unchecked exceptions. All other
exceptions are known as checked exceptions,
meaning that the compiler forces the programmer
to check and deal with the exceptions.

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 Unchecked Exceptions
In most cases, unchecked exceptions reflect programming
logic errors that are not recoverable. For example, a
NullPointerException is thrown if you access an object
through a reference variable before an object is assigned to
it; an IndexOutOfBoundsException is thrown if you access
an element in an array outside the bounds of the array.
These are the logic errors that should be corrected in the
program. Unchecked exceptions can occur anywhere in the
program. To avoid cumbersome overuse of try-catch
blocks, Java does not mandate you to write code to catch
unchecked exceptions.

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 Unchecked Exceptions
ClassNotFoundException

ArithmeticException
IOException

Exception NullPointerException
RuntimeException
IndexOutOfBoundsException
Many more classes
Object Throwable IllegalArgumentException

Many more classes

LinkageError

Error VirtualMachineError Unchecked

exception.

Many more classes

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 Declaring, Throwing, and
Catching Exceptions

method1() { declare exception

method2() throws Exception {
try {
invoke method2; if (an error occurs) {
}
catch exception catch (Exception ex) { throw new Exception(); throw exception
Process exception; }
} }
}

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 Declaring Exceptions
Every method must state the types of checked
exceptions it might throw. This is known as
declaring exceptions.

public void myMethod()

throws IOException

public void myMethod()

throws IOException, OtherException

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 Throwing Exceptions
When the program detects an error, the program
can create an instance of an appropriate exception
type and throw it. This is known as throwing an
exception. Here is an example,

throw new TheException();

TheException ex = new TheException();

throw ex;

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 Throwing Exceptions Example
/** Set a new radius */
public void setRadius(double newRadius)
throws IllegalArgumentException {
if (newRadius >= 0)
radius = newRadius;
else
throw new IllegalArgumentException(
"Radius cannot be negative");
}

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 Catching Exceptions
try {
statements; // Statements that may throw exceptions
}
catch (Exception1 exVar1) {
handler for exception1;
}
catch (Exception2 exVar2) {
handler for exception2;
}
...
catch (ExceptionN exVar3) {
handler for exceptionN;
}

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 Catching Exceptions
main method { method1 { method2 { An exception
... ... ... is thrown in
try { try { try { method3
... ... ...
invoke method1; invoke method2; invoke method3;
statement1; statement3; statement5;
} } }
catch (Exception1 ex1) { catch (Exception2 ex2) { catch (Exception3 ex3) {
Process ex1; Process ex2; Process ex3;
} } }
statement2; statement4; statement6;
} } }

Call Stack
method3

method2 method2

method1 method1 method1

main method main method main method main method

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 Catch or Declare Checked Exceptions
Suppose p2 is defined as follows:

void p2() throws IOException {

if (a file does not exist) {
throw new IOException("File does not exist");
}

...
}

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 Catch or Declare Checked Exceptions
Java forces you to deal with checked exceptions. If a method declares a
checked exception (i.e., an exception other than Error or
RuntimeException), you must invoke it in a try-catch block or declare to
throw the exception in the calling method. For example, suppose that
method p1 invokes method p2 and p2 may throw a checked exception (e.g.,
IOException), you have to write the code as shown in (a) or (b).

void p1() { void p1() throws IOException {

try {
p2(); p2();
}
catch (IOException ex) { }
...
}
}

(a) (b)

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 Example: Declaring, Throwing, and
Catching Exceptions
Objective: This example demonstrates
declaring, throwing, and catching exceptions
by modifying the setRadius method in the
Circle class defined in Chapter 9. The new
setRadius method throws an exception if
radius is negative.

CircleWithException

TestCircleWithException Run

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 Rethrowing Exceptions
try {
statements;
}
catch(TheException ex) {
perform operations before exits;
throw ex;
}

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 The finally Clause
try {
statements;
}
catch(TheException ex) {
handling ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

Suppose no
exceptions in the
statements
try {
statements;
}
catch(TheException ex) {
handling ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

The final block is
try { always executed
statements;
}
catch(TheException ex) {
handling ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

Next statement in the
try { method is executed
statements;
}
catch(TheException ex) {
handling ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

try { Suppose an exception
statement1; of type Exception1 is
statement2; thrown in statement2
statement3;
}
catch(Exception1 ex) {
handling ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

try { The exception is
statement1; handled.
statement2;
statement3;
}
catch(Exception1 ex) {
handling ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

try { The final block is
statement1; always executed.
statement2;
statement3;
}
catch(Exception1 ex) {
handling ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

try { The next statement in
statement1; the method is now
statement2; executed.
statement3;
}
catch(Exception1 ex) {
handling ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

try {
statement1; statement2 throws an
statement2; exception of type
statement3; Exception2.
}
catch(Exception1 ex) {
handling ex;
}
catch(Exception2 ex) {
handling ex;
throw ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

try {
statement1; Handling exception
statement2;
statement3;
}
catch(Exception1 ex) {
handling ex;
}
catch(Exception2 ex) {
handling ex;
throw ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

try {
statement1; Execute the final block
statement2;
statement3;
}
catch(Exception1 ex) {
handling ex;
}
catch(Exception2 ex) {
handling ex;
throw ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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animation

Trace a Program Execution

try {
statement1; Rethrow the exception
statement2; and control is
statement3; transferred to the caller
}
catch(Exception1 ex) {
handling ex;
}
catch(Exception2 ex) {
handling ex;
throw ex;
}
finally {
finalStatements;
}

Next statement;

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Cautions When Using Exceptions
Exception handling separates error-handling
code from normal programming tasks, thus
making programs easier to read and to modify.
Be aware, however, that exception handling
usually requires more time and resources
because it requires instantiating a new exception
object, rolling back the call stack, and
propagating the errors to the calling methods.

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 When to Throw Exceptions
An exception occurs in a method. If you want
the exception to be processed by its caller, you
should create an exception object and throw it.
If you can handle the exception in the method
where it occurs, there is no need to throw it.

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 When to Use Exceptions
When should you use the try-catch block in the code?
You should use it to deal with unexpected error
conditions. Do not use it to deal with simple, expected
situations. For example, the following code
try {
System.out.println(refVar.toString());
}
catch (NullPointerException ex) {
System.out.println("refVar is null");
}
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 When to Use Exceptions
is better to be replaced by
if (refVar != null)
System.out.println(refVar.toString());
else
System.out.println("refVar is null");

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Defining Custom Exception Classes
Use the exception classes in the API whenever possible.
Define custom exception classes if the predefined
classes are not sufficient.
Define custom exception classes by extending
Exception or a subclass of Exception.

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 Custom Exception Class Example
In Listing 13.8, the setRadius method throws an exception if the
radius is negative. Suppose you wish to pass the radius to the
handler, you have to create a custom exception class.

InvalidRadiusException

CircleWithRadiusException

TestCircleWithRadiusException Run

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