Java: Try-Catch-Continue? - java

Let's say I can a set of statements:
try {
String a = getProperty("a");
String b = getProperty("b");
String c = getProperty("c");
} catch(Exception e) {
}
Now, lets say property b was not found and the function throws an exception. In this case, how would I just continue or perhaps set b to null without having to write a try-catch block for each property? I mean, a,b,c exist but sometime they might not be found at all during which an exception is thrown.

Assuming you can't change the function so that it returns null when the property isn't found, you are kind of stuck wrapping everything in its own try catch block -- especially if you want for every value that can be retrieved to be retrieved (as opposed to letting the first value that fails cancel the whole operation.)
If you have a lot of these properties to retrieve, perhaps it would be cleaner to write a helper method to use:
String getPropertySafely(String key) {
try {
return getProperty(key);
} catch (Exception e) {
return null;
}
}

You have to put a try-catch around each statement. There is no continue (like there is in ON ERROR ... RESUME blocks in VB). Instead of:
String a = null;
try {
a = getProperty("a");
} catch(Exception e) {
...
}
String b = null;
try {
b = getProperty("b");
} catch(Exception e) {
...
}
String c = null;
try {
c = getProperty("c");
} catch(Exception e) {
...
}
you could write:
public String getPropertyNoException(String name) {
try {
return getProperty(name);
} catch (Exception e) {
return null;
}
}
Personally I think a getProperty() is a poor candidate for throwing exceptions just for all this extra boilerplate required

Since you are using the same function each time you might be able to put this in a loop:
String[] abc = new String[3];
String[] param = {"a", "b", "c"};
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
try {
abc[i] = getProperty(param[i]);
} catch(Exception e) {
}
}
but this is rather contrived and would only be useful for a large number of properties. I suspect you will have to simple write 3 try-catch.

You should reconsider how getProperty is handled if you plan to use many of them because there isn't a plain way to do it.
You can exploit finally statement but you still need a try-catch for every call.

Related

How to properly close input streams?

There are two methods of doing the same thing. The first:
public String getIpByName(String name) {
var builders = NetworkUtil.buildProcess(name);
try (var ip = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(executor.execPipelineAndGetInputStream(builders)))) {
return ip.lines().collect(Collectors.joining());
} catch (IOException exception) {
throw new NotFoundException(name);
}
}
Second:
public String getIpByName(String name) {
var builders = NetworkUtil.buildProcess(name);
try (var result = executor.execPipelineAndGetInputStream(builders)) {
var input = new InputStreamReader(result);
var reader = new BufferedReader(input);
var ip = reader.lines().collect(Collectors.joining());
input.close();
reader.close();
return ip;
} catch (IOException exception) {
throw new NotFoundException(name);
}
Which method would be more correct?
The second one is never correct. Either the close() calls are important, or they are not. If they are important, they should be try/finally-ied or try-with-resourced. If they are not important, they are not important, and you should not bother writing the statements.
Thus, we have 3 alternatives, not 2, and only your first alternative is left unchanged:
Second:
public String getIpByName(String name) {
var builders = NetworkUtil.buildProcess(name);
try (var result = executor.execPipelineAndGetInputStream(builders)) {
var input = new InputStreamReader(result);
var reader = new BufferedReader(input);
return reader.lines().collect(Collectors.joining());
} catch (IOException exception) {
throw new NotFoundException(name);
}
}
and there's a third, using the resource chaining feature of try-with-resources:
public String getIpByName(String name) {
var builders = NetworkUtil.buildProcess(name);
try (var result = executor.execPipelineAndGetInputStream(builders);
var input = new InputStreamReader(result);
var reader = new BufferedReader(input)) {
return reader.lines().collect(Collectors.joining());
} catch (IOException exception) {
throw new NotFoundException(name);
}
}
Of these 3 options, you get into a bit of a debate; the first option seems fine; the implementations of these so-called 'filter streams' (those are readers/writers/outputstreams/inputstreams that 'wrap' another stream) have the deal that close()ing them will close the thing they wrapped. Thus, ordinarily #1 seems fine, but if an exception were to occur in the constructor of the filterstream, then you leak a resource. Will these exceptions occur? Ordinarily impossible, but not always, here's a trivial way to cause a commonly used filterstream to crash in construction:
new InputStreamReader(someData, "some non existing charset");
Thus, I strongly advise against the first. That leaves door #2 and door #3: It really doesn't matter; I think the second one is probably the most readable, but the problem with the second option is that various IDE and linting tools will complain about it, they have a hard time telling the difference between resource-representing streamlikes, and filters/memory-only streamlikes. This is not their fault, really: How could they possibly know if the InputStream returned by your execPipelineAndGetInputStream method is supposed to be 'thing you need to close' or 'thing you can close but it doesnt matter' or 'thing you should not be closing at all'?
The first one is more correct, since the second one does not close the InputStreamReader and BufferedReader when there is an exception thrown, while the first example is using the try-with-resources statement (https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/exceptions/tryResourceClose.html).
For the first example to be correct you should move the lines closing resources to the finally clause:
try (var result = executor.execPipelineAndGetInputStream(builders)) {
var input = new InputStreamReader(result);
var reader = new BufferedReader(input);
var ip = reader.lines().collect(Collectors.joining());
return ip;
} catch (IOException exception) {
throw new NotFoundException(name);
} finally {
input.close();
reader.close();
}

What is the proper way to return a value from try-catch block?

An example that does not work due to the lack of a return value:
public Path writeToFile() {
try {
Path tempFilePath = Files.createTempFile(Paths.get(""), "sorting_test_", ".txt");
BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(tempFilePath.toFile()));
for (List<Integer> arr : arrays) {
// Convert array ints to strings, join it to single string and write
bw.write(arr.stream()
.map(String::valueOf)
.collect(Collectors.joining(" ")));
bw.newLine();
}
bw.close();
return tempFilePath;
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
I know that I can do like this:
public Path writeToFile() {
Path tempFilePath = null;
//try-catch{...}
return tempFilePath;
}
But it looks ugly. Is there a more natural way to solve this task?
Here are some possible solutions:
Change the method signature to public void writeToFile(). Don't return the Path. (But this probably won't work for you: you probably need the Path.)
Add return null; at the end of the method. This has the disadvantage that the caller needs to deal with the case where null is returned ... or else it will get NPEs when they attempt to use the non-existent Path.
This is equivalent to your "ugly" solution. It is debatable which is better from a stylistic perspective. (A dogmatic "structured programming" person would say your way is better!)
Change the signature to return as Optional<Path>. This is a better alternative than returning an explicit null. If you implement it correctly, the caller is effectively forced to deal with the "absent" case.
Remove the try catch and change the signature of the method to public Path writeToFile() throws IOException. The caller has to deal with the checked exception, but that may be a good thing!
I should point out that your code is not handling the resources properly. You should be using try with resources to ensure that the stream created by FileWriter is always closed. Otherwise there is a risk of leaking file descriptors that could ultimately result in unexpected I/O errors.
If you don't want to return null i will prefer using Optional from java 8
public Optional<Path> writeToFile() {
try {
Path tempFilePath = Files.createTempFile(Paths.get(""), "sorting_test_", ".txt");
BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(tempFilePath.toFile()));
for (List<Integer> arr : arrays) {
// Convert array ints to strings, join it to single string and write
bw.write(arr.stream()
.map(String::valueOf)
.collect(Collectors.joining(" ")));
bw.newLine();
}
bw.close();
return Optional.of(tempFilePath);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return Optional.empty()
}
So in the caller method you can use
public void ifPresent(Consumer consumer)
or
public boolean isPresent()
I don't know why you're looking for a more "natural" solution, but you could just return null in your catch block.
Another solution, instead of eating an IOException (antipattern), convert it to an appropriate subclass of RuntimeException and throw from the catch block.
Also, in your example, you are leaking file handler, by not closing FileWriter on exception.
public Path writeToFile() {
final Path tempFilePath;
try {
tempFilePath = Files.createTempFile(Paths.get(""), "sorting_test_", ".txt");
} catch (IOException e ) {
throw new MyRuntimeException(
"Cannot create sorting_test temp file",
e
);
}
try (final FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(tempFilePath.toFile())) {
try(final BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter(fw)) {
for (List<Integer> arr : arrays) {
// Convert array ints to strings, join it to single string and write
bw.write(arr.stream()
.map(String::valueOf)
.collect(Collectors.joining(" ")));
bw.newLine();
}
}
return tempFilePath;
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new MyRuntimeException(
"Cannot write to " + tempFilePath,
e
);
}
}
The most appropriate way is to keep the return statement in try block.
If we keep the return statement in finally or after catch we might be swallowing the exception.
This is an old link that seems to be related. See if this helps.

Deserializing multiple objects from file without using while(true)

I have a block of code, that deserializes multiple objects from file. How can i avoid using a while(true)?
ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream(
filename));
while (true) {
try {
MyObject o = (MyObject) in.readObject();
// Do something with the object
} catch (EOFException e) {
break;
}
}
in.close();
You should write either a collection (with a size), or a put a marker before each object:
try {
for (;in.readBoolean();) {
MyObject o = (MyObject) in.readObject();
}
} catch (EOFException e) {
// ...
}
When you write your object, write a boolean just before (it will however take 1 byte if I do remember well that part):
for (MyObject o : iterable) {
out.writeBoolean(true);
out.writeObject(o);
}
out.writeBoolean(false);
If iterable is a collection or map, you can use default serialization:
out.writeObject(iterable); // default collection serialization
Beside, don't catch an exception for each item, catch it globally (especially EOFException!): it is better for performance reasons.
I don't know if you work with Java 7, but your code + my for loop can be written like this:
try (ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream( filename))) {
for (;in.readBoolean();) {
MyObject o = (MyObject) in.readObject();
}
} catch (EOFException e) {
// ...
}
// no need to close, the try-with-resources do the job for you.
How can i avoid using a while(true)?
You can't.
More to the point, why do you think you want to?
This is a classic example of the tail wagging the dog. EOFException is thrown to indicate end of stream. Ergo you have to catch it, and ergo you have to loop until it is thrown, ergo you have to use while (true) or one of its cognates.
The exception thought police would have you prepend an object count, taking the curious position that external data structures should be designed to suit the coder's phobias, and overlooking that you may not know it in advance, or may need to change your mind, or may need to exit prematurely; or would have you write a null as an end-of-stream marker, overlooking that it prevents the use of null for any other purpose; and in both cases overlooking the fact that the API is already designed to throw EOFException, and already works the way it already works, so you already have to code accordingly.
The code that I'm proposing let you to serialize and deserialize multiple objects really easily without having any problems and avoiding the awful (in my opinion) while true:
public class EntityClass implements Serializable{
private int intVal;
private String stringVal;
public EntityClass(int intVal, String stringVal) {
this.intVal = intVal;
this.stringVal = stringVal;
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return "EntityClass{" +
"intVal=" + intVal +
", stringVal='" + stringVal + '\'' +
'}';
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
EntityClass a = new EntityClass(1, "1");
EntityClass b = new EntityClass(2, "2");
EntityClass c = new EntityClass(3, "3");
ObjectOutputStream stream = new ObjectOutputStream(new FileOutputStream("out"));
stream.writeObject(a);
stream.writeObject(b);
stream.writeObject(c);
stream.close();
ObjectInputStream streamRead = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream("out"));
EntityClass[] entities = new EntityClass[3];
int cont = 0;
try {
while (streamRead.available() >= 0) {
entities[cont] = (EntityClass) streamRead.readObject();
System.out.println(entities[cont]);
cont++;
}
} catch (EOFException exp) {
} finally {
streamRead.close();
}
}
}

How to avoid printing exception and assign another action when exception was encountered? My attempt don't work right

I am encountering an error when user doesn't type anything into input statement. I thought of using Try/Catch blocks to instead throw exception to set boolAskRepeat to true which should skip to the end of the code and repeat the loop.
This doesn't work, and I believe I'm missing something but I'm not sure what... It still throws exception saying:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 0
at java.lang.String.charAt(Unknown Source)
at ITSLab03.main(ITSLab03.java:34)
Which is this line of code: inputStatus = input.readLine().toLowerCase().charAt(0);
What am I doing wrong here?
while (boolAskStatus == true)
{
System.out.print("Employment Status (F or P): ");
try
{
inputStatus = input.readLine().toLowerCase().charAt(0);
if (inputStatus == "f".charAt(0))
{
boolAskStatus = false;
String stringCheckSalary = null;
boolean boolCheckSalary = true;
while (boolCheckSalary == true)
{
// some code
}
outputData(inputName, inputStatus, calculateFullTimePay(inputSalary));
}
else if (inputStatus == "p".charAt(0))
{
// some code
outputData(inputName, inputStatus, calculatePartTimePay(inputRate, inputHours));
}
else boolAskStatus = true;
}
catch (IOException e) { boolAskStatus = true; }
}
You need to catch StringIndexOutOfBoundsException as well (If you observe the stack trace properly this is the exception you are getting)
catch (StringIndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
boolAskStatus = true;
}
(or)
catch Exception which catches all runtime exceptions
catch (Exception e) {
boolAskStatus = true;
}
The normal try catch pattern should look like this:
try
{
// code that is vulnerable to crash
}
catch (Specific-Exception1 e1)
{
// perform action pertaining to this exception
}
catch (Specific-Exception2 e2)
{
// perform action pertaining to this exception
}
....
....
catch (Exception exp) // general exception, all exceptions will be caught
{
// Handle general exceptions. Normally i would end the program or
// inform the user that something unexpected occurred.
}
By using .charAt(0), you are assuming that the String has a length > 0.
You could simplify this a bunch by just doing:
String entry = input.readLine().toLowerCase();
if (entry.startsWith("f")) {
...
}
else if ("entry".startsWith("p")) {
...
}
Your code doesn't work the way you want because input.readLine().toLowerCase().charAt(0) throws a StringIndexOutOfBoundsException, which is not an IOException, so the catch block never gets hit. You can make it work by changing the catch to
catch (StringIndexOutOfBoundsExceptione e) { boolAskStatus = true; }
But...
It's generally not a good idea to base your program's normal behaviour on exception handling. Think of exception throwing as something that could happen, but usually won't. Why not use something like:
final String STATUS_F = "f";
final String STATUS_P = "p";
String fromUser = null;
do {
String rawInput = input.readLine().toLowerCase();
if (rawInput.startsWith(STATUS_F)) {
fromUser = STATUS_F;
} else if (rawInput.startsWith(STATUS_P)) {
fromUser = STATUS_P;
}
} while (fromUser == null);
if (STATUS_F.equals(fromUser)) {
// do something
} else if (STATUS_P.equals(fromUser)) {
// do something else
} else {
// Shouldn't be able to get here!
throw new Exception("WTF!?");
}
It much easier for another person reading this to understand why the program loops and how the loop is controlled, in part because the code that figures out what the user is inputting and the code that decides what to do with that information are separated. Plus, you don't need to deal with exceptions.

How to continue with If-Conditions in Try-Catch

I have this line of Code
try {
String txtText = article.getTxtText().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(article.getTxtText().toString())){
textPropertyList.add(txtText);
}
String txtLongText = article.getObjLongTextData().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(txtLongText)){
textPropertyList.add(txtLongText);
}
String txtShortText = article.getObjShortTeaserData().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(txtShortText)) {
textPropertyList.add(txtShortText);
}
} catch (NullPointerException e) {
}
It is possible, that only one of the three properties are set. But if one property isnt set, I get this NullpointerException. I catch it, but then the try-Block isnt continued.
So e.g. if the article.getTxtText() method returns null, I dont get the txtLongText and txtShortText Strings either, although at least one of them has a not empty String set.
So the question is, how can I continue the try-block although there's is an Exception caught?
Thanks a lot.
You should either use 3 try-catch blocks or just use a null-check around every case.
if (article.getTxtText() != null) {
// do part 1
}
if (article.getObjLongTextData() != null) {
// do part 2
}
I would imagine that the correct approach to this is to have three try/catch blocks around each point of code. The whole point of a try block is that you are trying the code as a lump and if it fails anywhere you abandon it. For what you are describing you would need three try/catches around each possible point of failure.
That having been said you are probably better off testing for null rather than relying on exception handling to do that. Exception handling should be for exceptionalm unforeseen events, not for flow control in a program.
If you must do this with exceptions (and I don't think you should), then you need to have 3 separate try/catch blocks:
try {
String txtText = article.getTxtText().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(article.getTxtText().toString())){
textPropertyList.add(txtText);
}
} catch (NullPointerException e) {}
try {
String txtLongText = article.getObjLongTextData().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(txtLongText)){
textPropertyList.add(txtLongText);
}
} catch (NullPointerException e) {}
try {
String txtShortText = article.getObjShortTeaserData().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(txtShortText)) {
textPropertyList.add(txtShortText);
}
} catch (NullPointerException e) {}
Once an exception is thrown in your code you cannot restart execution in the middle of the try block.
Having said that I would always prefer to detect the null pointer with an if test rather than relying on exception handling for this non-exceptional condition.
do defensive programming ,check for nulls.
if ( variable != null ){
...
}
The simplest and better approach from my point of view would be break the try - catch block in three different try-catch block, something like the following :
try {
String txtText = article.getTxtText().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(article.getTxtText().toString())){
textPropertyList.add(txtText);
}
} catch (NullPointerException e) {
//Handle Exception
}
try {
String txtLongText = article.getObjLongTextData().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(txtLongText)){
textPropertyList.add(txtLongText);
}
} catch (NullPointerException e) {
//Handle Exception
}
try {
String txtShortText = article.getObjShortTeaserData().toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText(txtShortText)) {
textPropertyList.add(txtShortText);
}
} catch (NullPointerException e) {
//Handle Exception
}
I'd recommend a different design:
private void addProperty(Object property, Collection<String> properties) {
if (property == null) {
return;
}
String textProperty = property.toString();
if (StringUtils.hasText()) {
properties.add(textProperty);
}
}
Usage:
addProperty(article.getTxtText());
// ...
Why are you doing this in a try / catch, just use simple if
if ( txtText != null ){
...
}
if ( txtLongText != null ){
...
}

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