Checked vs Unchecked exceptions in Java

Checked exceptions

A checked exception is an exception that occurs at the compile time, these are also called as compile time exceptions. These exceptions cannot simply be ignored at the time of compilation, the programmer should take care of (handle) these exceptions.

For example, if you use FileReader class in your program to read data from a file, if the file specified in its constructor doesn't exist, then a FileNotFoundException occurs, and the compiler prompts the programmer to handle the exception.

Example

Live Demo

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;

public class FilenotFound_Demo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {      
      File file = new File("E://file.txt");
      FileReader fr = new FileReader(file);    
   }
}

If you try to compile the above program, you will get the following exceptions.

Output

C:\>javac FilenotFound_Demo.java
FilenotFound_Demo.java:8: error: unreported exception FileNotFoundException; must be caught or declared to be thrown
   FileReader fr = new FileReader(file);                      
      ^
1 error

Note − Since the methods read() and close() of FileReader class throws IOException, you can observe that the compiler notifies to handle IOException, along with FileNotFoundException.

Unchecked exceptions

An unchecked exception is an exception that occurs at the time of execution. These are also called as Runtime Exceptions. These include programming bugs, such as logic errors or improper use of an API. Runtime exceptions are ignored at the time of compilation.

For example, if you have declared an array of size 5 in your program, and trying to call the 6th element of the array then an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsExceptionexception occurs.

Example

Live Demo

public class Unchecked_Demo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      int num[] = {1, 2, 3, 4};
      System.out.println(num[5]);
   }
}

If you compile and execute the above program, you will get the following exception.

Output

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 5
   at Exceptions.Unchecked_Demo.main(Unchecked_Demo.java:8)

karthikeya Boyini

Updated on 18-Jun-2020 13:13:42

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