Java Try Catch Finally blocks without Catch

Question

I'm reviewing some new code. The program has a try and a finally block only. Since the catch block is excluded, how does the try block work if it encounters an exception or anything throwable? Does it just go directly to the finally block?

Answer 1

The inner finally is executed prior to throwing the exception to the outer block.

public class TryCatchFinally {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

    try{
        System.out.println('A');
        try{
            System.out.println('B');
            throw new Exception("threw exception in B");
        }
        finally
        {
            System.out.println('X');
        }
        //any code here in the first try block 
        //is unreachable if an exception occurs in the second try block
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
        System.out.println('Y');
    }
    finally
    {
        System.out.println('Z');
    }
  }
}

Results in

A
B
X
Y
Z

Answer 2

Don't you try it with that program? It'll goto finally block and executing the finally block, but, the exception won't be handled. But, that exception can be overruled in the finally block!

Answer 3

The finally block is executed after the try block completes. If something is thrown inside the try block when it leaves the finally block is executed.

Answer 4

The finally block is always run after the try block ends, whether try ends normally or abnormally due to an exception, er, throwable.

If an exception is thrown by any of the code within the try block, then the current method simply re-throws (or continues to throw) the same exception (after running the finally block).

If the finally block throws an exception / error / throwable, and there is already a pending throwable, it gets ugly. Quite frankly, I forget exactly what happens (so much for my certification years ago). I think both throwables get linked together, but there is some special voodoo you have to do (i.e. - a method call I would have to look up) to get the original problem before the "finally" barfed, er, threw up.

Incidentally, try/finally is a pretty common thing to do for resource management, since java has no destructors.

E.g. -

r = new LeakyThing();
try { useResource( r); }
finally { r.release(); }  // close, destroy, etc

"Finally", one more tip: if you do bother to put in a catch, either catch specific (expected) throwable subclasses, or just catch "Throwable", not "Exception", for a general catch-all error trap. Too many problems, such as reflection goofs, throw "Errors", rather than "Exceptions", and those will slip right by any "catch all" coded as:

catch ( Exception e) ...  // doesn't really catch *all*, eh?

do this instead:

catch ( Throwable t) ...

Answer 5

If any of the code in the try block can throw a checked exception, it has to appear in the throws clause of the method signature. If an unchecked exception is thrown, it's bubbled out of the method.

The finally block is always executed, whether an exception is thrown or not.

Answer 6

how does the try block work if it encounters an exception or anything throwable

The exception is thrown out of the block, just as in any other case where it's not caught.

The finally block is executed regardless of how the try block is exited -- regardless whether there are any catches at all, regardless of whether there is a matching catch.

The catch blocks and the finally are orthogonal parts of the try block. You can have either or both. With Java 7, you'll be able to have neither!