Modern Programming Tools And Techniques-I

Lecture 14: Exception Handling

Lovely Professional University, Punjab

Exception

Introduction
An exception is an event, which occurs during the execution of a program, that disrupts the normal flow of the program's instructions. A Java exception is an object that describes an exceptional (that is, error) condition that has occurred in a piece of code. An exception is an abnormal condition that arises in a code sequence at run time. In other words, an exception is a run-time error.

Exception Handling
class Exception { public static void main (String arr[]) { System.out.println(Enter two numbers); Scanner s = new Scanner (System.in); int x = s.nextInt(); int y = s.nextInt(); int z = x/y; System.out.println(result of division is : + z); } }

Exception Handling
An Exception is a run-time error that can be handled programmatically in the application and does not result in abnormal program termination. Exception handling is a mechanism that facilitates programmatic handling of run-time errors. In java, each run-time error is represented by an object.

Exception (Class Hierarchy)

At the root of the class hierarchy, there is an abstract class named Throwable which represents the basic features of run-time errors.

There are two non-abstract sub-classes of Throwable.

Exception Error : can be handled : cant be handled

RuntimeException is the sub-class of Exception. Exceptions of this type are automatically defined for the programs that we write and include things such as division by zero and invalid array indexing. Each exception is a run-time error but all run-time errors are not exceptions.

Throwable
Exception Run-time Exception - ArithmeticException - ArrayIndexOutOf BoundsException - NullPointerException Error - VirtualMachine - NoSuchMethod - StackOverFlow

IOEXception SQLException

Checked Exception
Unchecked Exception

Checked Exception
Checked Exceptions are those, that have to be either caught or declared to be thrown in the method in which they are raised. It is a reminder by compiler to programmer to handle failure senarios. When to use:
Operation where chances of failure are more eg: IO operation, database access, networking operation, etc.

Unchecked Exception
Those exceptions whose handling is not verified during compile-time. It is direct sub-class of RuntimeException. Advantage: maintains code readability. They arise due to:
Programming errors (like accessing method of null object, accessing element outside array)

Commonly used sub-classes of Exception

ArithmeticException

ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
NumberFormatException NullPointerException IOException

Commonly used sub-classes of Errors

VirualMachineError

StackOverFlowError
NoClassDefFoundError NoSuchMethodError

Uncaught Exceptions
class Exception_Demo { public static void main(String args[]) { int d = 0; int a = 42 / d; } } When the Java run-time system detects the attempt to divide by zero, it constructs a new exception object and then throws this exception. once an exception has been thrown, it must be caught by an exception handler and dealt with immediately.

 In the previous example, we havent supplied any exception handlers of our own. So the exception is caught by the default handler provided by the Java run-time system. Any exception that is not caught by your program will ultimately be processed by the default handler. The default handler displays a string describing the exception, prints a stack trace from the point at which the exception occurred, and terminates the program. java.lang.ArithmeticException: / by zero at Exc0.main(Exc0.java:4)

Why Exception Handling?

When the default exception handler is provided by the Java run-time system , why Exception Handling? Exception Handling is needed because:
it allows to fix the error, customize the message . it prevents the program from automatically terminating

Exception Handling

Keywords for Exception Handling

try catch throw throws finally

Keywords for Exception Handling

try
used to execute the statements whose execution may result in an exception. try {

Statements whose execution may cause an exception

}

Note: try block is always used either with catch or finally or with both.

Keywords for Exception Handling

catch
catch is used to define a handler. It contains statements that are to be executed when the exception represented by the catch block is generated. If program executes normally, then the statements of catch block will not executed. If no catch block is found in program, exception is caught by JVM and program is terminated.

class Divide{ public static void main(String arr[]){ try { int a= Integer.parseInt(arr[0]); int b= Integer.parseInt(arr[1]); int c = a/b; System.out.println(Result is: +c); } catch (ArithmeticException e) {System.out.println(Second number must be non-zero);} catch (NumberFormatException n) {System.out.println(Arguments must be Numeric);}

catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException a) {System.out.println(Invalid Number of arguments);} }

}

Nested Trys
class NestedTryDemo { public static void main(String args[]){ try { int a = Integer.parseInt(args[0]); try { int b = Integer.parseInt(args[1]); System.out.println(a/b); } catch (ArithmeticException e) { System.out.println(Div by zero error!"); } } catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException) { System.out.println(Need 2 parameters!"); } }}

Defining Generalized Exception Handler

A generalized exception handler is one that can handle the exceptions of all types. If a class has a generalized as well as specific exception handler, then the generalized exception handler must be the last one.

class Divide{ public static void main(String arr[]){ try { int a= Integer.parseInt(arr[0]); int b= Integer.parseInt(arr[1]); int c = a/b; System.out.println(Result is: +c); } catch (Throwable e) { System.out.println(e); } } }

Keywords for Exception Handling

throw
used for explicit exception throwing. throw(Exception obj); throw keyword can be used: to throw user defined exception to customize the message to be displayed by predefined exceptions to re-throw a caught exception

Note: System-generated exceptions are automatically thrown by

the Java run-time system.

class ThrowDemo { static void demo() { try { throw new NullPointerException("demo"); } catch(NullPointerException e) { System.out.println("Caught inside demo."); throw e; // rethrow the exception } } public static void main(String args[]) { try { demo(); } catch(NullPointerException e) { System.out.println("Recaught: " + e); } } }

Keywords for Exception Handling

throws
A throws clause lists the types of exceptions that a method might throw. type method-name(parameter-list) throws exception-list { // body of method } This is necessary for all exceptions, except those of type Error or Runtime Exception, or any of their subclasses.

All other exceptions that a method can throw must be declared in the throws clause. If they are not, a compile-time error will result.

import java.io.*; public class ThrowsDemo { public static void main( String args []) throws IOException { char i; BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); System.out.println("Enter character, 'q' to quit"); do{ i = (char) br.read(); System.out.print(i); }while(i!='q'); } }

Keywords for Exception Handling

Finally
finally creates a block of code that will be executed after a try/catch block has completed and before the code following the try/catch block. The finally block will execute whether or not an exception is thrown.
If an exception is thrown, the finally block will execute even if no catch statement matches the exception.

 If a finally block is associated with a try, the finally block will be executed upon conclusion of the try. The finally clause is optional. However, each try statement requires at least one catch or a finally clause.

Defining Custom Exceptions

We can create our own Exception sub-classes by inheriting Exception class. The Exception class does not define any methods of its own. It inherits those methods provided by Throwable. Thus, all exceptions, including those that we create, have the methods defined by Throwable available to them.

Constructor for creating Exception

Exception( ) Exception(String msg) A custom exception class is represented by a subclass of Exception / Throwable. It contains the above mentioned constructor to initialize custom exception object.

class Myexception extends Throwable { public Myexception(int i) { System.out.println("you have entered ." +i +" : It exceeding the limit"); } }

public class ExceptionTest { public void show(int i) throws Myexception { if(i>100) throw new Myexception(i); else System.out.println(+i+" is less then 100 it is ok"); } public static void main(String []args){ int i=Integer.parseInt(args[0]); int j=Integer.parseInt(args[1]); ExceptionTest t=new ExceptionTest(); try{ t.show(i); t.show(j); } catch(Throwable e) { System.out.println("catched exception is "+e); } } }