[Advanced-java] How To Determine The Appropriate Exception?

[David Rosenstrauch]

On Friday 08 August 2003 10:15 am, KCE wrote:
>
> Yeah, in fact, you can use the Exception base class:
>
> try {
>    myObject.myMethod();
> } catch(Exception e) {
>    e.printStackTrace();
> }
>
> Just try to avoid doing this whenever possible!  Its
> really easy to wind up with exceptions flying everywhere
> and NO IDEA where they came from!!!


Yes, use the exception class.

But IMHO your response is off-base on 2 other points:

1) "Just try to avoid doing this whenever possible!"  I couldn't disagree 
more.  There's no need to "try to avoid" using exceptions.  Use them when 
they're appropriate - they make for a clean flow of code.  Don't use them 
when they're not appropriate.  I don't think I ever experienced this issue of 
"exceptions flying everywhere and NO IDEA where they came from", and I've 
been coding in Java for 8 years.

2) You should never do this:

} catch(Exception e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
}

"Swallowing" an exception deep down in some method in the call stack instead 
of propogating it up the call stack is a really bad idea.  It makes for 
extremely buggy code where something dies deep down somewhere, but the 
calling code (whether GUI or server) never knows about it or handles it 
properly.  Furthermore, "handling" an exception by just printing the stack 
trace is pretty useless.  A stack trace printed to the console is of no use 
to an end user.  (Assuming they even know where to look to read it.)


DR