JAVA: Intro to Exceptions

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Lesson 7

Intro to Exceptions

Types of Errors

Generally, you can come across three types of errors while developing software. These are Syntax,

Logic & Runtime errors.

1. Syntax Errors

Arise because the rules of the language are not followed.

2. Logic Errors

Indicates that logic used for coding doesn't produce expected output.

3. Runtime Errors

Occur because the program tries to perform an operation that is impossible to complete.

Cause exceptions and may be handled at runtime (while you are running the program)

For example divide by zero

What is an Exception?

An exception is an event that usually signals an erroneous situation at run time

Exceptions are wrapped up as objects

A program can deal with an exception in one of three ways:

ignore it

handle it where it occurs

handle it an another place in the program

Why handle Exceptions?

Helps to separate error handling code from main logic (the normal code you write) of the program.

As different sort/type of exceptions can arise, by handling exceptions we can distinguish

between them and write appropriate handling code for each type for example we can

differently handle exceptions that occur due to division by Zero and exceptions that occur due to

non-availability of a file.

If not handled properly, program might terminate.

Exceptions in Java

An exception in java is represented as an object that's created when an abnormal situation

arises in the program. Note that an error is also represented as an object in Java, but usually

represents an unrecoverable situation and should not be caught

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The exception object stores information about the nature of the problem. For example,

due to network problem or class not found etc.

All exceptions in java are inherited from a class know as Throwable.

Exception Hierarchy

Following diagram is an abridged version of Exception class hierarchy

Types of Exceptions

Exceptions can be broadly categorized into two types, Unchecked & Checked Exceptions.

Unchecked Exceptions

Subclasses of RuntimeException and Error.

Does not require explicit handling

Run-time errors are internal to your program, so you can get rid of them by debugging

your code

For example, null pointer exception; index out of bounds exception; division by zero

exception; ...

Checked Exceptions

Must be caught or declared in a throws clause

Compile will issue an error if not handled appropriately

Subclasses of Exception other than subclasses of RuntimeException.

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Other arrive from external factors, and cannot be solved by debugging

Communication from an external resource e.g. a file server or database

How Java handles Exceptions

Java handles exceptions via 5 keywords. try, catch, finally, throw & throws.

try block

Write code inside this block which could generate errors

catch block

Code inside this block is used for exception handling

When the exception is raised from try block, only than catch block would execute.

finally block

This block always executes whether exception occurs or not.

Write clean up code here, like resources (connection with file or database) that are

opened may need to be closed.

The basic structure of using try catch finally block is shown in the picture below:

try

//try block

{

// write code that could generate exceptions

} catch (<exception to be caught>)

//catch block

{

//write code for exception handling

catch (<exception to be caught>)

//catch block

{

//code for exception handling

} finally

//finally block

{

//any clean-up code, release the acquired resources

}

throw

To manually throw an exception, keyword throw is used.

Note: we are not covering throw clause in this handout

throws

If method is not interested in handling the exception than it can throw back the exception

to the caller method using throws keyword.

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Any exception that is thrown out of a method must be specified as such by a

throws clause.

References:

Java tutorial by Sun: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/turorial

Beginning Java2 by Ivor Hortan

Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckle

CS193j Stanford University

Code Examples of Exception Handling

Unchecked Exceptions

Example Code: UcException.java

The following program takes one command line argument and prints it on the console

// File UcException.java

public class UcException {

public static void main (String args[ ]) {

System.out.println(args[0]);

}

Compile & Execute

If we compile & execute the above program without passing any command line argument, an

ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException would be thrown. This is shown in the following picture

Why?

Since we have passed no argument, therefore the size of String args[ ] is zero, and we have tried to access

the first element (first element has index zero) of this array.

From the output window, you can find out, which code line causes the exception to be raised. In the

above example, it is

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System.out.println(args[0]);

Modify UcException.java

Though it is not mandatory to handle unchecked exceptions we can still handle

Unchecked Exceptions if we want to. These modifications are shown in bold.

// File UcException.java

public class UcException {

public static void main (String args[ ]) {

try {

System.out.println(args[0]);

catch (IndexOutOfBoundsExceptoin ex) {

System.out.println("You forget to pass command line argument");

}

The possible exception that can be thrown is IndexOutOfBoundsException, so we handle it in the

catch block.

When an exception occurs, such as IndexOutOfBoundsException in this case, then an object of

type IndexOutOfBoundesException is created and it is passed to the corresponding catch

block (i.e. the catch block which is capable of handling this exception). The catch block receives

the exception object inside a variable which is ex in this case. It can be any name; it is similar to

the parameter declared in the method signature. It receives the object of exception type

(IndexOutOfBoundsExceptoin) it is declared.

Compile & Execute

If we execute the modified program by passing command line argument, the program would display

on console the provided argument. After that if we execute this program again without passing

command line argument, this time information message would be displayed which is written inside

catch block.

Checked Exceptions

Example Code: CException.java

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The following program reads a line (hello world) from a file and prints it on the console. The File

reading code is probably new for you. We'll explain it in the coming handouts

(Streams). For now, assumed that the code written inside the main read one line from a file and

prints that to console.

// File CException.java

import java.io.* ;

public class CException {

public static void main (String args[ ]) {

FileReader fr = new FileReader ("input.txt");

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (fr);

//read the line form file

String line = br.readLine();

System.out.println(line);

}

Compile & Execute

If you try to compile this program, the program will not compile successfully and displays the

message of unreported exception. This happens when there is code that can generate a checked

exception but you have not handled that exception. Remember checked exceptions are detected

by compiler. As we early discussed, without handling Checked exception, out program won't compile.

Modify CException.java

As we have discussed earlier, it is mandatory to handle checked exceptions. In order to compile the

code above, we modify the above program so that file reading code is placed inside a try block. The

expected exception (IOException) that can be raised is caught in catch block.

// File CException.java

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import java.io.* ;

public class CException {

public static void main (String args[ ]) {

try{

FileReader fr = new FileReader ("input.txt");

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (fr);

//read the line form file

String line = br.readLine();

System.out.println(line);

catch( IOExceptoin ex) {

System.out.println(ex);

}

The code line written inside the catch block will print the exception name on the console if exception

occurs

Compile & Execute

After making changes to your program, it would compile successfully. On executing this program, hello

world would be displayed on the console

Note: Before executing, make sure that a text file named input.txt must be placed in the same

directory where the program is saved. Also write hello world in that file before saving it.

The finally block

The finally block always executes regardless of exception is raised or not while as you remembered

the catch block only executes when an exception is raised.

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Exampel Code : FBlockDemo.java

// File FBlockDemo.java

import java.io.* ;

public class FBlockDemo {

public static void main (String args[ ]) {

try{

FileReader fr = new FileReader ("strings.txt");

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (fr);

//read the line form file

String line = br.readLine();

System.out.println(line);

catch( IOExceptoin ex) {

System.out.println(ex);

}

finally {

System.out.println("finally block always execute");

}

Compile & Execute

The program above, will read one line from string.txt file. If string.tx is not present in the same directory

the FileNotFoundException would be raised and catch block would execute as well as the finally block.

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If string.txt is present there, no such exception would be raised but still finally block executes. This

is shown in the following output diagram

Multiple catch blocks

Possible to have multiple catch clauses for a single try statement

Essentially checking for different types of exceptions that may happen

Evaluated in the order of the code

Bear in mind the Exception hierarchy when writing multiple catch clauses!

If you catch Exception first and then IOException, the IOException will never be caught!

Example code: MCatchDemo.java

The following program would read a number form a file numbers.txt and than prints its square on the

console

// File MCatchDemo.java

import java.io.* ;

public class MCatchDemo {

public static void main (String args[ ]) {

try{

// can throw FileNotFound or IOException

FileReader fr = new FileReader ("numbers.txt");

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (fr);

//read the number form file

String s = br.readLine();

//may throws NumberFormatException, if s is not a no.

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int number = Integer.parseInt(s);

System.out.println(number * number);

catch( NumberFormatExceptoin nfEx) {

System.out.println(nfEx);

}

catch( FileNotFoundExceptoin fnfEx) {

System.out.println(fnfEx);

}

catch( IOExceptoin ioEx) {

System.out.println(ioEx);

}

We read everything from a file (numbers, floating values or text) as a String. That's why we first

convert it to number and than print its square on console.

Compile & Execute

If file numbers.txt is not present in the same directory, the FileNotFoundException

would be thrown during execution.

If numbers.txt present in the same directory and contains a number, than hopefully no exception

would be thrown.

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The throws clause

The following code examples will introduce you with writing & using throws clause.

Example Code: ThrowsDemo.java

The ThrowsDemo.java contains two methods namely method1 & method2 and one main method. The

main method will make call to method1 and than method1 will call method2. The method2 contains

the file reading code. The program looks like one given below

// File ThrowsDemo.java

import java.io.* ;

public class ThrowsDemo {

// contains file reading code

public static void method2( ) {

try{

FileReader fr = new FileReader ("strings.txt");

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (fr);

//read the line form file

String s = br.readLine();

System.out.println(s);

catch( IOExceptoin ioEx) {

ioEx.printStackTrace();

}

}// end method 2

//only calling method2

public static void method1( ) {

method2();

}

public static void main (String args[ ]) {

ThrowsDemo.method1();

}

printStackTrace method

Defined in the Throwable class superclass of Exception & Error classes

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Shows you the full method calling history with line numbers.

Extremely useful in debugging

Modify: ThrowsDemo.java

Let method2 doesn't want to handle exception by itself, so it throws the exception to the caller of

method2 i.e. method1

So method1 either have to handle the incoming exception or it can re-throw it to its caller i.e. main.

Let method1 is handling the exception, so method1& method2 would be modified as:

// File ThrowsDemo.java

import java.io.* ;

public class ThrowsDemo {

// contains file reading code

public static void method2( ) throws IOEception{

FileReader fr = new FileReader ("strings.txt");

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (fr);

//read the line form file

String s = br.readLine();

System.out.println(s);

}// end method 2

// calling method2 & handling incoming exception

public static void method1( ) {

try {

method2();

catch (IOException ioEx) {

ioEx.printStackTrace();

}

public static void main (String args[ ]) {

ThrowsDemo.method1();

}

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Compile & Execute

If file strings.txt is not present in the same directory, method2 will throw an exception that would be

caught by method1 and the printStackTrace method will print the full calling history on console. The

above scenario is shown in the output below:

If file strings.txt exist there, than hopefully line would be displayed on the console.

Reference

Example code, their explanations and corresponding figures for this handout are taken from the book

JAVA A Lab Course by Umair Javed. This material is available just for the use of VU students of the

course Web Design and Development and not for any other commercial purpose without the consent of

author.

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