Special Edition Using Java 2 Standard Edition

Catching and Throwing Exceptions

When you write programs using Java, sooner or later (and probably much sooner) you're going to run into exceptions. An exception is a special type of object that is created when something goes wrong in a method. The rest of your program is notified about a problem when a method performs an action called throwing an exception. When an exception is thrown, it's up to your program to catch the exception and handle it.

Using try/catch/finally

In some of the previous chapters, you've gotten a quick look at exceptions and how they are handled in a program. An exception is thrown when a method call cannot complete successfully. You can prevent some exceptions by guarding actions that have the potential to cause an error. ...