UNIT – III
EXCEPTIONS
EXCEPTION HANDLING TECHNIQUES
TRY, CATCH, FINALLY, THROW, THROWS
USER DEFINED EXCEPTION
EXCEPTION ENRICHMENT
Page 1
EXCEPTION HANDLING IN JAVA
The exception handling in java is one of the powerful mechanism to handle the runtime
errors so that normal flow of the application can be maintained.
What is exception
Dictionary Meaning: Exception is an abnormal condition.
In java, exception is an event that disrupts the normal flow of the program. It is an object
which is thrown at runtime.
What is exception handling
Exception Handling is a mechanism to handle runtime errors such as ClassNotFound, IO,
SQL, Remote etc.
Page 2
Advantage of Exception Handling
The core advantage of exception handling is to maintain the normal flow of the application.
Exception normally disrupts the normal flow of the application that is why we use
exception handling.
Let's take a scenario:
1. statement 1;
2. statement 2;
3. statement 3;
4. statement 4;
5. statement 5;//exception occurs
6. statement 6;
7. statement 7;
8. statement 8;
9. statement 9;
10. statement 10;
Suppose there is 10 statements in your program and there occurs an exception at statement 5,
rest of the code will not be executed i.e. statement 6 to 10 will not run. If we perform exception
handling, rest of the exception will be executed. That is why we use exception handling in
java.
Types of Exception
There are mainly two types of exceptions: checked and unchecked where error is considered as
unchecked exception. The sun microsystem says there are three types of exceptions:
1. Checked Exception
2. Unchecked Exception
3. Error
Difference between checked and unchecked exceptions
1) Checked Exception
The classes that extend Throwable class except RuntimeException and Error are known as
checked exceptions e.g.IOException, SQLException etc. Checked exceptions are checked
at compile-time.
Page 3
Page 4
2) Unchecked Exception
The classes that extend RuntimeException are known as unchecked exceptions e.g.
ArithmeticException, NullPointerException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException etc.
Unchecked exceptions are not checked at compile-time rather they are checked at runtime.
3) Error
Error is irrecoverable e.g. OutOfMemoryError, VirtualMachineError, AssertionError etc.
Common scenarios where exceptions may occur
There are given some scenarios where unchecked exceptions can occur. They are as follows:
1) Scenario where ArithmeticException occurs
If we divide any number by zero, there occurs an ArithmeticException.
1. int a=50/0;//ArithmeticException
2) Scenario where NullPointerException occurs
If we have null value in any variable, performing any operation by the variable occurs an
NullPointerException.
1. String s=null;
2. System.out.println(s.length());//NullPointerException
3) Scenario where NumberFormatException occurs
The wrong formatting of any value, may occur NumberFormatException. Suppose I have a
string variable that have characters, converting this variable into digit will occur
NumberFormatException.
1. String s="abc";
2. int i=Integer.parseInt(s);//NumberFormatException
Page 5
4) Scenario where ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException occurs
If you are inserting any value in the wrong index, it would result
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException as shown below:
1. int a[]=new int[5];
2. a[10]=50; //ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
Java Exception Handling Keywords
There are 5 keywords used in java exception handling.
1. try
2. catch
3. finally
4. throw
5. throws
Java try block
Java try block is used to enclose the code that might throw an exception. It must be used
within the method.
Java try block must be followed by either catch or finally block.
Syntax of java try-catch
1. try{
2. //code that may throw exception
3. }
4. catch(Exception_class_Name ref){}
Syntax of try-finally block
1. try{
2. //code that may throw exception
3. }
4. finally{}
Java catch block
Java catch block is used to handle the Exception. It must be used after the try block only.
Page 6
You can use multiple catch block with a single try.
EXAMPLE:
1. public class Testtrycatch2{
2. public static void main(String args[]){
3. try{
4. int data=50/0;
5. }catch(ArithmeticException e){System.out.println(e);}
6. System.out.println("rest of the code...");
7. }
8. }
Test it Now
Output:
Exception in thread main java.lang.ArithmeticException:/ by zero
rest of the code...
Now, as displayed in the above example, rest of the code is executed i.e. rest of the code...
statement is printed.
Java finally block
Java finally block is a block that is used to execute important code such as closing connection,
stream etc.
Java finally block is always executed whether exception is handled or not.
Java finally block must be followed by try or catch block.
EXAMPLE:
1. public class TestFinallyBlock2{
2. public static void main(String args[]){
3. try{
4. int data=25/0;
5. System.out.println(data);
6. }
7. catch(ArithmeticException e){System.out.println(e);}
8. finally{System.out.println("finally block is always executed");}
9. System.out.println("rest of the code...");
10. }
Page 7
11. }
Test it Now
Output:Exception in thread main java.lang.ArithmeticException:/ by zero
finally block is always executed
rest of the code...
Java throw keyword
The Java throw keyword is used to explicitly throw an exception.
We can throw either checked or uncheked exception in java by throw keyword. The throw
keyword is mainly used to throw custom exception.
The syntax of java throw keyword is given below.
throw exception;
java throw keyword example
In this example, we have created the validate method that takes integer value as a parameter. If
the age is less than 18, we are throwing the ArithmeticException otherwise print a message
welcome to vote.
1. public class TestThrow1{
2. static void validate(int age){
3. if(age<18)
4. throw new ArithmeticException("not valid");
5. else
6. System.out.println("welcome to vote");
7. }
8. public static void main(String args[]){
9. validate(13);
10. System.out.println("rest of the code...");
11. }
12. }
Test it Now
Output:
Exception in thread main java.lang.ArithmeticException:not valid
Page 8
Java throws keyword
The Java throws keyword is used to declare an exception. It gives an information to the
programmer that there may occur an exception so it is better for the programmer to provide the
exception handling code so that normal flow can be maintained.
Syntax of java throws
1. return_type method_name() throws exception_class_name{
2. ...
3. }
Java throws example
Let's see the example of java throws clause which describes that checked exceptions can be
propagated by throws keyword.
1. import java.io.IOException;
2. class Testthrows1{
3. void m()throws IOException{
4. throw new IOException("device error");//checked exception
5. }
6. void n()throws IOException{
7. m();
8. }
9. void p(){
10. try{
11. n();
12. }catch(Exception e){System.out.println("exception handled");}
13. }
14. public static void main(String args[]){
15. Testthrows1 obj=new Testthrows1();
16. obj.p();
17. System.out.println("normal flow. ");
18. }
19. }
Test it Now
Output:
exception handled
normal flow...
Page 9
EXCEPTION ENRICHMENT IN JAVA
Exception enrichment is an alternative to exception wrapping
In exception enrichment you do not wrap exceptions. Instead you add contextual information
to the original exception and rethrow it. Rethrowing an exception does not reset the stack trace
embedded in the exception.
Here is an example:
public void method2() throws
EnrichableException{ try{
method1();
} catch(EnrichableException e){
e.addInfo("An error occurred when trying
to ..."); throw e;
public void method1() throws EnrichableException
{ if(...) throw new EnrichableException(
Page 10
Page 11
