Java Notes

Exceptions

Java throws an exception when it detects an error

When your program causes an error, Java throws an exception. Java then throws this exception to a part of the program that will catch it. You should catch all exceptions that are caused by events which you have no control over - exceptions caused by bad user input or I/O problems. You shouldn't catch any exceptions that are caused by programming bugs; you should let the program crash and then fix the programming error.

Processing an exception

When an exception is thrown, execution of that statement stops immediately and Java looks for someone to catch the exception.

1. It looks to see if the code that caused the exception is inside a try statement that can handle the exception. If the try statement has a catch clause that can handle this type of exception, then it goes to that code. After catch clause is executed, execution resumes after the end of the entire try statement. It's not possible to return to the point at which the exception was thrown.
2. If there is no try statement around the code that threw the exception, Java goes up the call stack and looks at the statement that called this method, and checks for a try statement surrounding the call. If it finds an enclosing try statement that has a catch clause for this kind of exception, the catch clause is executed and then execution continues after that try statement. Java continues moving up the call stack until it finds an enclosing try statement.
3. If no enclosing try statement and catch clause is found, the exception is caught by the initial Java system method that called main initially. It prints an error message and terminates the program.

try...catch statement catches exceptions

Put a try...catch statement around any section of code that might generate a user generated exception (eg, converting text field input to numbers). The simplest form is:

   . . . // Statements that don't throw an exception.
   try {
      . . . // Statements, some of which might throw an exception.
      . . . // This try clause is always executed.
   } catch (exception-name parameter-name) {
      . . . // Statements executed only if exception-name is thrown.
   }
   . . .  // Execution continues here after either the try or catch clause.

Example 1

If the user types text which isn't a number (eg, "123X45"), attempting to convert with Integer.parseInt will throw a NumberFormatException.

String ageStr = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter your age.");
try {
    age = Integer.parseInt(ageStr);
    . . . // Process the age.
catch (NumberFormatException nfe) {
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Input must be an integer");
}

Example 2

txt = aTextField.getText();
try {
    . . .  // other code
    i = Integer.parseInt(txt);
    . . .  // process the input
catch (NumberFormatException nfe) {
    aTextField.setText("Enter an integer");
}

Also see Example - Simple Calculator.