Here is a sample program that creates and throws an exception. The handler that catches
the exception rethrows it to the outer handler.
// Demonstrate throw.
class ThrowDemo {
static void demoproc() {
try {
throw new NullPointerException("demo");
} catch(NullPointerException e) {
System.out.println("Caught inside demoproc.");
throw e; // rethrow the exception
}
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
try {
demoproc();
} catch(NullPointerException e) {
System.out.println("Recaught: " + e);
}
}
}
This program gets two chances to deal with the same error. First, main( ) sets up an exception
context and then calls demoproc( ). The demoproc( ) method then sets up another exception-
handling context and immediately throws a new instance of NullPointerException, which
is caught on the next line. The exception is then rethrown. Here is the resulting output:
Caught inside demoproc.
Recaught: java.lang.NullPointerException: demo
The program also illustrates how to create one of Java's standard exception objects. Pay
close attention to this line:
throw new NullPointerException("demo");
Here, new is used to construct an instance of NullPointerException. Many of Java's built-
in run-time exceptions have at least two constructors: one with no parameter and one that
takes a string parameter. When the second form is used, the argument specifies a string that
describes the exception. This string is displayed when the object is used as an argument to
print( ) or println( ). It can also be obtained by a call to getMessage( ), which is defined by
Throwable.
throws
If a method is capable of causing an exception that it does not handle, it must specify this
behavior so that callers of the method can guard themselves against that exception. You do
this by including a throws clause in the method's declaration. A throws clause lists the types
of exceptions that a method might throw. This is necessary for all exceptions, except those of
Search WWH :
