Try/ catch/ finally statement in java
PROBLEM
You wish to use the try/ catch statement in Java. This blog post is showing few simple usages of this powerful mechanism.
solution
Using the try/catch has many use cases as explained in this post. Here we will see the syntax of such a mechanism
try/ catch example
package com.programmerabroad;
public class TryCatchExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
//simple try/catch statement
try {
throw new Exception();
}catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Exception thrown and caught here!");
}
}
}
output
try/ catch/ finally with exception example
The try/ catch statement can be extended and have a finally block. The finally block is executed despite an Exception thrown or not. Let’s see an example below:
package com.programmerabroad;
public class TryCatchFinallyExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
//try/catch/finally statement
try {
System.out.println("Trying to run some sensitive code...");
throw new Exception();
}catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Exception thrown and caught here!");
}finally {
System.out.println("This is the finally block");
}
}
}
output
The finally block is executed even if the Exception is thrown.
try/ catch/ finally no exception example
Below it’s the same example but no Exception is thrown
package com.programmerabroad;
public class TryCatchFinallyNoExceptionExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
//try/catch/finally statement
try {
System.out.println("Trying to run some sensitive code that is fine...");
}catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Exception thrown and caught here!");
}finally {
System.out.println("This is the finally block");
}
}
}
output
As expected, the finally block is still executed.
try/ catch/ finally example continued
Let’s see an example that the finally block will not be executed! Check the code below:
package com.programmerabroad;
public class TryCatchFinallyNoExecutionExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
System.exit(0);
}catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Exception thrown and caught here!");
}finally {
System.out.println("This is the finally block");
}
}
}
output
In this case, the finally statement is not executed because at line 6 the program is terminating. This is a usual interview question.
conclusion
Using this statement we can design more user-friendly programs that guide the user with a nice error rather than crashing the program. As we can see the finally block is executed despite of an Exception thrown. That is helpful at times, for example, you wish to close a resource like a database connection.
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Ellion
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