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Java Try Catch Finally blocks without Catch

Asked 2010-12-30T02:52:07.493
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I'm reviewing some new code. The program has a try and a finally block only. Since the catch block is excluded, how does the try block work if it encounters an exception or anything throwable? Does it just go directly to the finally block?

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The Java Language Specification(1) describes how try-catch-finally is executed. Having no catch is equivalent to not having a catch able to catch the given Throwable.

  • If execution of the try block completes abruptly because of a throw of a value V, then there is a choice:
    • If the run-time type of V is assignable to the parameter of any catch clause of the try statement, then …
      …
    • If the run-time type of V is not assignable to the parameter of any catch clause of the try statement, then the finally block is executed. Then there is a choice:
      • If the finally block completes normally, then the try statement completes abruptly because of a throw of the value V.
      • If the finally block completes abruptly for reason S, then the try statement completes abruptly for reason S (and the throw of value V is discarded and forgotten).

(1) Execution of try-catch-finally

answered 2010-12-30T10:28:44.360

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