HANDLING EXCEPTIONS AND EVENTS - Java Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design - page 734

The class Throwable contains various constructors and methods, some of which are
described in Table 11-1.
TABLE 11-1 Constructors and Methods of the class Throwable
public Throwable()
//Default constructor
//Creates an instance of Throwable with an empty message string
public Throwable(String strMessage)
//Constructor with parameters
//Creates an instance of Throwable with message string
//specified by the parameter strMessage
public String getMessage()
//Returns the detailed message stored in the object
public void printStackTrace()
//Method to print the stack trace showing the sequence of
//method calls when an exception occurs
public void printStackTrace(PrintWriter stream)
//Method to print the stack trace showing the sequence of
//method calls when an exception occurs. Output is sent
//to the stream specified by the parameter stream.
public String toString()
//Returns a string representation of the Throwable object
The methods getMessage , printStackTrace , and toString are public and are
inherited by the subclasses of the class Throwable .
The class Exception and its subclasses, some of which are shown in Figures 11-2 to
11-4, are designed to catch exceptions that should be caught and processed during
program execution, thus making a program more robust. The sections that follow discuss
how to use the class Exception and its subclasses to handle various types of exceptions,
and how to create your own exception classes.