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Chapter 8 - Exceptions and Assertions Edit summary
This chapter discusses exceptions and assertions in Java. The key points are: 1. Exceptions represent error conditions and allow for graceful handling of errors rather than program crashes. Exceptions can be caught using try-catch blocks. 2. Checked exceptions must be caught or declared in a method, while unchecked exceptions do not require handling. 3. Assertions allow checking for expected conditions and throwing errors if conditions are not met. Assertions are enabled during compilation and execution.
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Chapter 8 - Exceptions and Assertions Edit summary
- 1. Chapter 8 Exceptionsand Assertions
- 2. Objectives After youhave read and studied this chapter, you should be able to Improve the reliability of code by incorporating exception-handling and assertion mechanisms. Write methods that propagate exceptions. Implement the try-catch blocks for catching and handling exceptions. Write programmer-defined exception classes. Distinguish the checked and unchecked, or runtime, exceptions.
- 3. Definition An exception represents an error condition that can occur during the normal course of program execution. When an exception occurs, or is thrown , the normal sequence of flow is terminated. The exception-handling routine is then executed; we say the thrown exception is caught .
- 4. Not Catching ExceptionsError message for invalid input String inputStr; int age; inputStr = JOptionPane.showInputDialog ( null , "Age:" ) ; age = Integer.parseInt ( inputStr ) ; java.lang.NumberFormatException: ten at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:405) at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:454) at Ch8Sample1.main(Ch8Sample1.java:20)
- 5. Catching an ExceptioninputStr = JOptionPane.showInputDialog ( null , "Age:" ) ; try { age = Integer.parseInt ( inputStr ) ; } catch ( NumberFormatException e ){ JOptionPane.showMessageDialog( null , "’" + inputStr + "‘ is invalid\n" + "Please enter digits only" ); } try catch
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- 7. Getting Information Thereare two methods we can call to get information about the thrown exception: getMessage printStackTrace try { . . . } catch ( NumberFormatException e ){ System.out.println ( e.getMessage ()) ; System.out.println ( e.printStackTrace ()) ; }
- 8. Multiple catch Blocks A single try-catch statement can include multiple catch blocks, one for each type of exception. try { . . . age = Integer.parseInt ( inputStr ) ; . . . val = cal.get(id); //cal is a GregorianCalendar . . . } catch ( NumberFormatException e ){ . . . } catch ( ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException e ){ . . . }
- 9. Multiple catch Control Flow
- 10. The finally Block There are situations where we need to take certain actions regardless of whether an exception is thrown or not. We place statements that must be executed regardless of exceptions in the finally block.
- 11. try - catch- finally Control Flow
- 12. Propagating Exceptions Insteadof catching a thrown exception by using the try-catch statement, we can propagate the thrown exception back to the caller of our method. The method header includes the reserved word throws . public int getAge ( ) throws NumberFormatException { . . . int age = Integer.parseInt ( inputStr ) ; . . . return age; }
- 13. Throwing Exceptions Wecan write a method that throws an exception directly, i.e., this method is the origin of the exception. Use the throw reserved to create a new instance of the Exception or its subclasses. The method header includes the reserved word throws . public void doWork ( int num ) throws Exception { . . . if ( num != val ) throw new Exception ( "Invalid val" ) ; . . . }
- 14. Exception Thrower Whena method may throw an exception, either directly or indirectly, we call the method an exception thrower . Every exception thrower must be one of two types: catcher. propagator.
- 15. Types of ExceptionThrowers An exception catcher is an exception thrower that includes a matching catch block for the thrown exception. An exception propagator does not contain a matching catch block. A method may be a catcher of one exception and a propagator of another.
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- 17. Exception Types Alltypes of thrown errors are instances of the Throwable class or its subclasses. Serious errors are represented by instances of the Error class or its subclasses. Exceptional cases that common applications should handle are represented by instances of the Exception class or its subclasses.
- 18. Throwable Hierarchy Thereare over 60 classes in the hierarchy.
- 19. Checked vs. RuntimeThere are two types of exceptions: Checked. Unchecked. A checked exception is an exception that is checked at compile time. All other exceptions are unchecked , or runtime, exceptions . As the name suggests, they are detected only at runtime.
- 20. Different Handling RulesWhen calling a method that can throw checked exceptions use the try-catch statement and place the call in the try block, or modify the method header to include the appropriate throws clause. When calling a method that can throw runtime exceptions, it is optional to use the try-catch statement or modify the method header to include a throws clause.
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- 23. Programmer-Defined Exceptions Usingthe standard exception classes, we can use the getMessage method to retrieve the error message. By defining our own exception class, we can pack more useful information for example, we may define a OutOfStock exception class and include information such as how many items to order AgeInputException is defined as a subclass of Exception and includes public methods to access three pieces of information it carries: lower and upper bounds of valid age input and the (invalid) value entered by the user.
- 24. Assertions The syntaxfor the assert statement is assert <boolean expression>; where <boolean expression> represents the condition that must be true if the code is working correctly. If the expression results in false , an AssertionError (a subclass of Error ) is thrown.
- 25. Sample Use #1public double deposit ( double amount ) { double oldBalance = balance; balance += amount; assert balance > oldBalance; } public double withdraw ( double amount ) { double oldBalance = balance; balance -= amount; assert balance < oldBalance; }
- 26. Second Form Theassert statement may also take the form: assert <boolean expression>: <expression>; where <expression> represents the value passed as an argument to the constructor of the AssertionError class. The value serves as the detailed message of a thrown exception.
- 27. Sample Use #2public double deposit ( double amount ) { double oldBalance = balance; balance += amount; assert balance > oldBalance : "Serious Error – balance did not " + " increase after deposit" ; }
- 28. Compiling Programs withAssertions Before Java 2 SDK 1.4, the word assert is a valid nonreserved identifier. In version 1.4 and after, the word assert is treated as a regular identifier to ensure compatibility. To enable the assertion mechanism, compile the source file using javac –source 1.4 <source file>
- 29. Running Programs withAssertions To run the program with assertions enabled, use java –ea <main class> If the –ea option is not provided, the program is executed without checking assertions.
- 30. Different Uses ofAssertions Precondition assertions check for a condition that must be true before executing a method. Postcondition assertions check conditions that must be true after a method is executed. A control-flow invariant is a third type of assertion that is used to assert the control must flow to particular cases.
- 31. Problem Statement Problemstatement: Implement a Keyless Entry System that asks for three pieces of information: resident’s name, room number, and a password. A password is a sequence of characters ranging in length from 4 to 8 and is unique to an individual dorm resident. If everything matches, then the system unlocks and opens the door. We assume no two residents have the same name. We use the provided support classes Door and Dorm. Sample resident data named samplelist.dat can be used for development.
- 32. Overall Plan Tasks:To begin our development effort, we must first find out the capabilities of the Dorm and Door classes. Also, for us to implement the class correctly, we need the specification of the Resident class. In addition to the given helper classes and the Resident class, we need to design other classes for this application. As the number of classes gets larger, we need to plan the classes carefully.
- 33. Design Document Thisclass maintains information on individual dorm residents. Specification for this class is provided to us. Resident The standard class for displaying messages. JOptionPane The user interface class for handling input routines. InputHandler The given predefined class that maintains a list of Resident objects. Dorm The given predefined class that simulates the opening of a door. Door The top-level control object that manages other objects in the program. This is an instantiable main class. Ch8EntranceMonitor Purpose Class
- 34. Class Relationships (mainclass) Door JOptionPane Resident InputFrame Ch8EntranceMonitor Dorm
- 35. Development Steps Wewill develop this program in three steps: Define the Resident class and explore the Dorm class. Start with a program skeleton to test the Resident class. Define the user interface InputHandler class. Modify the top-level control class as necessary. Finalize the code by making improvements and tying up loose ends.
- 36. Step 1 DesignExplore the Dorm class Implement the Resident class, following the given specification Start with the skeleton main class
- 37. Step 1 CodeDirectory: Chapter8/Step1 Source Files: Resident.java Ch8EntranceMonitor.java Program source file is too big to list here. From now on, we ask you to view the source files using your Java IDE.
- 38. Step 1 TestThe purpose of Step 1 testing is to verify that the Dorm class is used correctly to open a file and get the contents of the file. To test it, we need a file that contains the resident information. A sample test file called testfile.dat is provided for testing purpose. This file contains information on four residents. This file was created by executing the SampleCreateResidentFile program, which you can modify to create other test data files.
- 39. Step 2 DesignDesign and implement the InputHandler class. Modify the main class to incorporate the new class.
- 40. Step 2 CodeDirectory: Chapter8/Step2 Source Files: Resident.java Ch8EntranceMonitor.java InputHandler.java
- 41. Step 2 TestThe purpose of Step 2 testing is to verify the correct behavior of an InputHandler. We need to test both successful and unsuccessful cases. We must verify that the door is in fact opened when the valid information is entered. We must also verify that the error message is displayed when there’s an error in input. We should test invalid cases such as entering nonexistent name, corrent name but wrong password, not enetering all information, and so forth.
- 42. Step 3: FinalizePossible Extensions Improve the user interface with a customized form window for entering three pieces of information. Terminate the program when the administrator enters a special code
Editor's Notes
- #4 We can increase our programs’ reliability and robustness if we catch the exceptions ourselves using error recovery routines we develop. One way to do this is to wrap the statements that may throw an exception with the try-catch control statement.
- #5 Consider the given example. What would happen if the user enters a value such as the text 'ten' instead of 10? The parseInt method cannot convert such an input to an internal numerical format. This type of error is called an exception, and it will result in displaying an error message such as the one shown here. We say the parseInt method has thrown a NumberFormatException.
- #6 This example shows a way to handle a thrown exception in our code, instead of letting the system handle it, as in the previous example. If any statement inside the try block throws an exception, then the statements in the matching catch block are executed. And the program continues the execution from the statement that follows this try-catch statement.
- #7 This illustrates how the control flows when there is an exception and when there is no exception. In the case when no statements in the try block throw an exception, then the catch block is skipped and execution continues with the next statement following the try-catch statement. If any one of the statements throws an exception, the statements in the catch block are executed. Execution then continues to the statement following the try-catch statement, ignoring any remaining statements in the try block.
- #8 In the previous example, we simply displayed a fixed error message. We can get display a more generic error message by using the getMessage or printStrackTrace methods. We will experiment with these methods in the lab.
- #9 In this example, we see two statements in the try block that can potentially throw exceptions. The parseInt method throws a NumberFormatException while the get method throws an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException when the argument id is outside the range of valid values.
- #10 Here's how the control flows when there are multiple catch blocks. In the case when no statements in the try block throw an exception, then all catch blocks are skipped and execution continues with the next statement following the try-catch statement. If any one of the statements throws an exception, the statements in the matching catch block are executed. Execution then continues to the statement following the try-catch statement, ignoring any remaining statements in the try block.
- #11 The finally block is not used often in introductory level programs, but we will introduce them here for the sake of complete coverage of the topic. For example, suppose we open a communication channel from our Java program to a remote web server to exchange data. If the data exchange is successfully completed in the try block, then we close the communication channel and finish the operation. If the data exchange is interrupted for some reason, an exception is thrown and the operation is aborted. In this case also, we need to close the communication channel, because leaving the channel open by one application blocks other applications from using it. The code to close the communication channel should therefore be placed in the finally block.
- #12 Here's how the control flows when there are multiple catch blocks and the finally block. In the case when no statements in the try block throw an exception, then all catch blocks are skipped, but the statements in the finally block are executed. Execution continues with the next statement following the try-catch statement. If any one of the statements throws an exception, the statements in the matching catch block are executed first and the statements in the finally block are executed next. Execution then continues to the statement following the try-catch statement, ignoring any remaining statements in the try block.
- #13 Using the try-catch statement is the first way to handle the exceptions. The second way is to propagate the thrown exception back to the caller of the method. The method that includes the statement that calls our method must either catch it or propagate it back to their caller.
- #14 It is possible to throw an exception from our own method.
- #15 We say a method throws an exception directly when the method includes the throw statement. Otherwise, a method is throwing an exception indirectly.
- #17 This illustration shows a sequence of method calls among the exception throwers. Method D throws an instance of Exception. The green arrows indicate the direction of calls. The red arrows show the reversing of call sequence, looking for a matching catcher. Method B is the catcher. The call sequence is traced by using a stack.
- #19 The classes shown here are some of the more common classes in the Throwable class hierarchy. We will be seeing most of the Exception and its subclasses shown here in the later modules.
- #22 Callers of a method that can throw a checked exception must include the try-catch statement in the method body or the throws clause in the header.
- #23 It is optional for callers of a method that can throw runtime exceptions to include the try-catch statement in the method body or the throws clause in the header.
- #31 We will be seeing examples of using assertions in the sample programs later.
- #33 For this application, we are given two helper classes. In order to use the Dorm class, we must supply the Resident class whose specification is already set so it works correctly with the given Dorm class. The relationship between the Dorm and Resident is similar to the one between the DrawingBoard and the DrawableShape classes.
- #34 There will be a total of six key classes in this application. We will be designing three classes: Ch8EntranceMonitor, Resident, and InputFrame.
- #35 Most relationships follow the client-service pattern, except the one between the InputFrame and Ch8EntranceMonitor follows the supervisor-subordinate pattern.
- #38 Please use your Java IDE to view the source files and run the program.
- #40 .