Exception Handling in Java

Richard S. Huntrods
June 14, 2001
University of Calgary

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 Exception Handling in Java
 Topics:
 Introduction
 Errors and Error handling
 Exceptions
 Types of Exceptions
 Coding Exceptions
 Summary

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 Introduction
 Users have high expectations for
the code we produce.
 Users will use our programs in
unexpected ways.
 Due to design errors or coding
errors, our programs may fail in
unexpected ways during execution

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 Introduction
 It is our responsibility to produce
quality code that does not fail
unexpectedly.
 Consequently, we must design
error handling into our programs.

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 Errors and Error Handling
 An Error is any unexpected result obtained
from a program during execution.
 Unhandled errors may manifest themselves
as incorrect results or behavior, or as
abnormal program termination.
 Errors should be handled by the
programmer, to prevent them from reaching
the user.

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 Errors and Error Handling
 Some typical causes of errors:
 Memory errors (i.e. memory incorrectly
allocated, memory leaks, “null pointer”)
 File system errors (i.e. disk is full, disk
has been removed)
 Network errors (i.e. network is down,
URL does not exist)
 Calculation errors (i.e. divide by 0)

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 Errors and Error Handling
 More typical causes of errors:
 Array errors (i.e. accessing element –
1)
 Conversion errors (i.e. convert ‘q’ to a
number)
 Can you think of some others?

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 Errors and Error Handling
 Traditional Error Handling
 1. Every method returns a value (flag)
indicating either success, failure, or some
error condition. The calling method checks
the return flag and takes appropriate action.
 Downside: programmer must remember to
always check the return value and take
appropriate action. This requires much
code (methods are harder to read) and
something may get overlooked.

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 Errors and Error Handling
 Traditional Error Handling
 Where used: traditional programming
languages (i.e. C) use this method for
almost all library functions (i.e.
fopen() returns a valid file or else null)

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 Errors and Error Handling
 Traditional Error Handling
 2. Create a global error handling routine,
and use some form of “jump” instruction to
call this routine when an error occurs.
 Downside: “jump” instruction (GoTo) are
considered “bad programming practice” and
are discouraged. Once you jump to the error
routine, you cannot return to the point of
origin and so must (probably) exit the
program.

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 Errors and Error Handling
 Traditional Error Handling
 Where used: many older
programming texts (C, FORTRAN)
recommended this method to
programmers. Those who use this
method will frequently adapt it to new
languages (C++, Java).

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 Errors and Error Handling
 Exceptions – a better error handling
 Exceptions are a mechanism that provides
the best of both worlds.
 Exceptions act similar to method return
flags in that any method may raise and
exception should it encounter an error.
 Exceptions act like global error methods in
that the exception mechanism is built into
Java; exceptions are handled at many levels
in a program, locally and/or globally.

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 Exceptions
 What are they?
 An exception is a representation of an
error condition or a situation that is not
the expected result of a method.
 Exceptions are built into the Java
language and are available to all
program code.
 Exceptions isolate the code that deals
with the error condition from regular
program logic.

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 Exceptions
 How are they used?
 Exceptions fall into two categories:
 Checked Exceptions
 Unchecked Exceptions
 Checked exceptions are inherited from the core
Java class Exception. They represent exceptions
that are frequently considered “non fatal” to
program execution
 Checked exceptions must be handled in your
code, or passed to parent classes for handling.

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 Exceptions
 How are they used?
 Unchecked exceptions represent error
conditions that are considered “fatal”
to program execution.
 You do not have to do anything with
an unchecked exception. Your
program will terminate with an
appropriate error message.

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 Exceptions
 Examples:
 Checked exceptions include errors
such as “array index out of bounds”,
“file not found” and “number format
conversion”.
 Unchecked exceptions include errors
such as “null pointer”.

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 Exceptions
 How do you handle exceptions?
 Exception handling is accomplished
through the “try – catch” mechanism,
or by a “throws” clause in the method
declaration.
 For any code that throws a checked
exception, you can decide to handle
the exception yourself, or pass the
exception “up the chain” (to a parent
class).

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 Exceptions
 How do you handle exceptions?
 To handle the exception, you write a “try-
catch” block. To pass the exception “up the
chain”, you declare a throws clause in your
method or class declaration.
 If the method contains code that may cause
a checked exception, you MUST handle the
exception OR pass the exception to the
parent class (remember, every class has
Object as the ultimate parent)

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 Coding Exceptions
 Try-Catch Mechanism
 Wherever your code may trigger an
exception, the normal code logic is
placed inside a block of code starting
with the “try” keyword:
 After the try block, the code to handle
the exception should it arise is placed
in a block of code starting with the
“catch” keyword.

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 Coding Exceptions
 Try-Catch Mechanism
 You may also write an optional “finally”
block. This block contains code that is
ALWAYS executed, either after the “try”
block code, or after the “catch” block code.
 Finally blocks can be used for operations
that must happen no matter what (i.e.
cleanup operations such as closing a file)

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 Coding Exceptions
 Example
 try {
… normal program code
}
catch(Exception e) {
… exception handling code
}

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 Coding Exceptions
 Passing the exception
 In any method that might throw an exception,
you may declare the method as “throws” that
exception, and thus avoid handling the
exception yourself
 Example
 public void myMethod throws IOException {
… normal code with some I/O
}

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 Coding Exceptions
 Types of Exceptions
 All checked exceptions have class
“Exception” as the parent class.
 You can use the actual exception class or
the parent class when referring to an
exception
 Where do you find the exception classes?
 Reference books such as “Java in a Nutshell”
(O’Reilly, 2001), or the Java Documentation.

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 Coding Exceptions
 Types of Exceptions
 Examples:
 public void myMethod throws Exception {

public void myMethod throws IOException
{

try { … }
catch (Exception e) { … }
 try { … }
catch (IOException ioe) { … }

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 Code Examples
 1. Demonstration of an unchecked
exception (NullPointerException)
 2. Demonstration of checked
exceptions:
 Passing a DivideByZeroException
 Handling a DivideByZeroException

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 Summary
 Exceptions are a powerful error
handling mechanism.
 Exceptions in Java are built into the
language.
 Exceptions can be handled by the
programmer (try-catch), or handled
by the Java environment (throws).

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