Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
•Chapter 7
Exception Handling
1
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Chapter 7:
Exceptions Handling
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Objectives
• Define an exception
• Explain exception handling
• Describe the try, catch, and finally blocks
• Examine multiple catch blocks
• Explore nested try / catch blocks
• Explain the use of throw and throws keywords
• Create user defined exceptions
• Learn usage of Assert statement
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 3 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
What is an exception?
◼ If an error is encountered while executing a program, an
exception occurs.
ERROR !!
example :
• When an exception occurs program terminates abruptly and control
returns to operating system.
• Exception handling is performed to identify errors and trap them.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 4 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Handling exceptions – General example
• Snippet of a pseudocode follows:
…………
IF B IS ZERO GO TO ERROR
C = A/B
PRINT C
GO TO EXIT
ERROR:
DISPLAY “DIVISION BY ZERO” Block that
handles error
EXIT:
END
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 5 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Handling exceptions in Java
• Error handling in Java is performed with the help of an exception-handling model.
• Occurrence of an error causes an exception to be thrown, which is caught in a block.
• Error and Exception classes handle errors in Java.
• When an exception occurs, an instance representing that exception is created. The
instance is then passed to the method that retrieves and processes the information.
• Error class exceptions are internal errors
• e.g. – reading a file from a floppy without inserting it in the floppy drive
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 6 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Handling exceptions in Java Contd…
• Java exception handling is managed through five keywords: try, catch,
throw, throws, and finally.
• Program statements, that have to be monitored for exceptions, are contained within
a try block.
• By using catch keyword, the programmer can catch the exception and handle it in
some rational manner.
• To manually throw an exception, we use the keyword throw.
• Throws clause is used in a method to specify that this method will throw out an
exception.
• In the finally block, we can specify the code that is absolutely necessary to be
executed before a method returns.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 7 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Hierarchy of Exception Classes
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 8 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Exception handling model
• Handled by five keywords – try, catch, throw, throws,
and finally
• Two ways to handle exceptions in Java:
• Statements that may throw exceptions are in the try block and exception
handling statements in the catch block
• A method may be declared in such a way that in case an exception occurs, its
execution is abandoned
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 9 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
try and catch block - Example
class ExceptionDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{ Output
try
{
String text = args[0];
System.out.println(text);
}
catch(Exception ne)
{
System.out.println("No arguments given! ");
}
}
}
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 10 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
A sample program to demonstrate exceptions
public class StckExceptionDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
try
Output
{
int num = calculate(9,0); // user defined method
System.out.println(num);
}
catch(Exception e) // exception object
{
System.err.println("Exception occurred :" + e.toString());
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
static int calculate( int no, int no1)
{
int num = no / no1;
return num;
}
}
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 11 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Methods used in the example
• toString() retrieves a String representation of the
information stored in an Exception object
• printStackTrace() is used to print out the cause of exception
and also the line in the code which generated it
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 12 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
finally block
◼ Ensures that all cleanup work is taken care of when an exception occurs
• Used in conjunction with a try block
• Guaranteed to run whether or not an exception occurs
• An exception if thrown will run the finally block even if there is no matching
catch block
No exception finally
try block
catch block finally
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 13 of 27
Exception
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
finally block - Example
class StrExceptionDemo
{
static String str;
public static void main(String s[])
{
try
{ Output
System.out.println("A");
StrExceptionDemo.staticLengthmethod();
System.out.println("B"); //this code is not executed
}
catch(NullPointerException ne)
{
System.out.println("Exception occured");
System.out.println("C");
}
finally
{
System.out.println("D");
}
}
static void staticLengthmethod()
{
System.out.println(str.length());
}
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 14 of 27
}
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Multiple catch blocks
◼ Single piece of code can generate more than one error.
◼ Hence, multiple catch blocks may have to be provided.
◼ Each catch statement has an order of appearance.
……….
try{
}
catch(ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
}
catch(Exception e) {
}
……….
• ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException being a subclass of Exception
class is handled first.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 15 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Example
class MultipleCatch
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
try
{
Output
String num = args[0];
int numValue = Integer.parseInt(num);
System.out.println("The square is: " + numValue * numValue);
}
catch(ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException ne)
{
System.out.println("No arguments given!");
}
catch(NumberFormatException nb)
{
System.out.println("Not a number!");
}
}
}
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 16 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Nested try - catch blocks
◼ At times, a part of one block may cause an error and the
entire block may cause another error.
• In such a case, exception handlers have to be nested.
• When nested try blocks are used, inner try block is executed first.
• If no matching catch block is encountered, catch blocks of outer
try blocks are inspected until all nested try statements are
executed.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 17 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Example
class NestedTry
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
try
{
Output
int num = args.length;
try
{
int numValue = Integer.parseInt( args[0]);
System.out.println("The square is " + numValue * numValue);
}
catch(NumberFormatException nb)
{
System.out.println("Not a number! ");
}
}
catch(ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException ne)
{
System.out.println("No arguments given! ");
}
}
}
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 18 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Using throw & throws
◼ Exceptions are thrown using throw keyword.
try
{
if(flag<0)
{
throw new NullPointerException();
}
}
• A single method may throw more than one exception.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 19 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Using throws
public class Example
{
public void exceptionExample()
{
try
{
// statements
check();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
//statements
}
}
// multiple exceptions separated by a comma
void check() throws NullPointerException, NegativeArraySizeException
{
if (flag < 0)
throw new NullPointerException();
if(arrsize < 0)
throw new NegativeArraySizeException();
}
}
• check() method includes the throws keyword
• Such methods should be invoked withinJava try / Session
a Simplified / catch
12 / 20 of 27 blocks
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
User defined exceptions
◼ Built-in exceptions may not always be enough to trap all the
errors.
• Hence there is a need for user defined exception class.
• Should be a subclass of the Exception class
• The new exception type can be caught separately from other
subclasses of Throwable.
• User defined exception classes that are created will have all methods
of Throwable class.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 21 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Example
class ArraySizeException extends NegativeArraySizeException
{ void checkSize() throws ArraySizeException
ArraySizeException()
{ // constructor
{ if(size < 0)
super("You have passed
throw new illegal array size");
ArraySizeException();
}
} Output
array = new int[3];
class UserDefinedException
for(int count = 0; count < 3; count++)
{ array[count] = count+1;
int size, array[];
}
UserDefinedException(int val)main(String arg[])
public static void
{ {
size = val; new UserDefinedException(Integer.parseInt(arg[0]));
try }
{ }
checkSize();
}
catch(ArraySizeException e)
{
System.out.println(e);
}
} Java Simplified / Session 12 / 22 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Summary
• Whenever an error is encountered while executing a program, an Exception
occurs.
• An Exception occurs at run time in a code sequence.
• Every exception that is thrown must be caught, or the application terminates
abruptly.
• Exception handling allows combining error processing in one place.
• Java uses the try and catch block to handle exceptions.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 23 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Summary Contd…
• The statements in the try block throw exceptions and the catch block
handles them.
• Multiple catch blocks can be used together to process various exception types
separately.
• The throws keyword is used to list the exception that a method can throw.
• The throw keyword is used to indicate that exception has occurred.
• The statements in the finally block are executed irrespective of whether an
exception occurs or not.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 24 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Programming with assertions
• Assertions enables the programmer to test assumptions about the program.
• Ways of writing assertion statements are:
• assert expression;
• assert expression1:expression2;
• The expression in the first form will have a boolean value and evaluate whether the
expression is true and if it is false it will throw an AssertionError.
• The expression1 in the second form will be a boolean expression and expression2 can have any
value, except that it cannot invoke a void method.
• If expression1 evaluates to false it will throw an AssertionError. The value in expression2
will be passed to AssertionError constructor and the value will be used to display the error
message.
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 25 of 27
Object Oriented Programming Course VKU
Programming with assertions Contd…
• Situations for assertion statements
• Internal invariants: assertion can be used wherever it asserts an invariant
• Control Flow Invariants: an assertion can be placed at any location where
control cannot be reached
• Preconditions,post conditions and class invariants
• Command for compiling files that uses assertion statements is:
• javac –source 1.4 filename
Java Simplified / Session 12 / 26 of 27
