Java - catch Keyword

Java catch keyword is used to catch an exception in Java. An exception (or exceptional event) is a problem that arises during the execution of a program. When an Exception occurs the normal flow of the program is disrupted and the program/Application terminates abnormally, which is not recommended, therefore, these exceptions are to be handled.

An exception can occur for many different reasons. Following are some scenarios where an exception occurs.

• A user has entered an invalid data.

• A file that needs to be opened cannot be found.

• A network connection has been lost in the middle of communications or the JVM has run out of memory.

Some of these exceptions are caused by user error, others by programmer error, and others by physical resources that have failed in some manner.

Catching Exceptions

A method catches an exception using a combination of the try and catch keywords. A try/catch block is placed around the code that might generate an exception. Code within a try/catch block is referred to as protected code, and the syntax for using try/catch looks like the following −

Syntax

try {
   // Protected code
} catch (ExceptionName e1) {
   // Catch block
}

The code which is prone to exceptions is placed in the try block. When an exception occurs, that exception occurred is handled by catch block associated with it. Every try block should be immediately followed either by a catch block or finally block.

A catch statement involves declaring the type of exception you are trying to catch. If an exception occurs in protected code, the catch block (or blocks) that follows the try is checked. If the type of exception that occurred is listed in a catch block, the exception is passed to the catch block much as an argument is passed into a method parameter.

Example

In following example, an array is declared with 2 elements. Then the code tries to access the 3^rd element of the array which throws an exception.

// File Name : ExcepTest.java
package com.tutorialspoint;

public class ExcepTest {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      try {
         int a[] = new int[2];
         System.out.println("Access element three :" + a[3]);
      } catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
         System.out.println("Exception thrown  :" + e);
      }
      System.out.println("Out of the block");
   }
}

Output

Exception thrown  :java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 3
Out of the block

Multiple Catch Blocks

A try block can be followed by multiple catch blocks. The syntax for multiple catch blocks looks like the following −

Syntax

try {
   // Protected code
} catch (ExceptionType1 e1) {
   // Catch block
} catch (ExceptionType2 e2) {
   // Catch block
} catch (ExceptionType3 e3) {
   // Catch block
}

The previous statements demonstrate three catch blocks, but you can have any number of them after a single try. If an exception occurs in the protected code, the exception is thrown to the first catch block in the list. If the data type of the exception thrown matches ExceptionType1, it gets caught there. If not, the exception passes down to the second catch statement. This continues until the exception either is caught or falls through all catches, in which case the current method stops execution and the exception is thrown down to the previous method on the call stack.

Example

Here is code segment showing how to use multiple try/catch statements.

try {
   file = new FileInputStream(fileName);
   x = (byte) file.read();
} catch (IOException i) {
   i.printStackTrace();
   return -1;
} catch (FileNotFoundException f) // Not valid! {
   f.printStackTrace();
   return -1;
}

Example

In following example, an array is declared with 2 elements. Then the code tries to access the 3^rd element of the array which throws an exception. We've defined multiple catch blocks to handle different types of exception.

// File Name : ExcepTest.java
package com.tutorialspoint;

public class ExcepTest {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      try {
         int a[] = new int[2];
         System.out.println("Access element three :" + a[3]);
      } catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
         System.out.println("Exception thrown  :" + e);
      }catch(Exception e) {
         System.out.println("Exception thrown  :" + e);
      }
      System.out.println("Out of the block");
   }
}

Output

Exception thrown  :java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 3
Out of the block

Catching Multiple Type of Exceptions

Since Java 7, you can handle more than one exception using a single catch block, this feature simplifies the code. Here is how you would do it −

catch (IOException|FileNotFoundException ex) {
   logger.log(ex);
   throw ex;