Converting checked to unchecked exceptions

Throwing an exception from main( ) is convenient when you’re writing a main( ), but not generally useful. The real problem is when you are writing an ordinary method body, and you call another method and realize “I have no idea what to do with this exception here, but I don’t want to swallow it or print some banal message.” With JDK 1.4 chained exceptions, a new and simple solution prevents itself. You simply “wrap” a checked exception inside a RuntimeException, like this:

try {
  // ... to do something useful
} catch(IDontKnowWhatToDoWithThisCheckedException e) {
  throw new RuntimeException(e);
}

This seems to be an ideal solution if you want to “turn off” the checked exception—you don’t swallow it, and you don’t have to put it in your method’s exception specification, but because of exception chaining you don’t lose any information from the original exception.

This technique provides the option to ignore the exception and let it bubble up the call stack without being required to write try-catch clauses and/or exception specifications. However, you may still catch and handle the specific exception by using getCause( ), as seen here:

//: c09:TurnOffChecking.java
// "Turning off" Checked exceptions.
import com.bruceeckel.simpletest.*;
import java.io.*;

class WrapCheckedException {
  void throwRuntimeException(int type) {
    try {
      switch(type) {
        case 0: throw new FileNotFoundException();
        case 1: throw new IOException();
        case 2: throw new RuntimeException("Where am I?");
        default: return;
      }
    } catch(Exception e) { // Adapt to unchecked:
      throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }
  }
}

class SomeOtherException extends Exception {}

public class TurnOffChecking {
  private static Test monitor = new Test();
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    WrapCheckedException wce = new WrapCheckedException();
    // You can call f() without a try block, and let
    // RuntimeExceptions go out of the method:
    wce.throwRuntimeException(3);
    // Or you can choose to catch exceptions:
    for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
      try {
        if(i < 3)
          wce.throwRuntimeException(i);
        else
          throw new SomeOtherException();
      } catch(SomeOtherException e) {
          System.out.println("SomeOtherException: " + e);
      } catch(RuntimeException re) {
        try {
          throw re.getCause();
        } catch(FileNotFoundException e) {
          System.out.println(
            "FileNotFoundException: " + e);
        } catch(IOException e) {
          System.out.println("IOException: " + e);
        } catch(Throwable e) {
          System.out.println("Throwable: " + e);
        }
      }
    monitor.expect(new String[] {
      "FileNotFoundException: " +
      "java.io.FileNotFoundException",
      "IOException: java.io.IOException",
      "Throwable: java.lang.RuntimeException: Where am I?",
      "SomeOtherException: SomeOtherException"
    });
  }
} ///:~

WrapCheckedException.throwRuntimeException( ) contains code that generates different types of exceptions. These are caught and wrapped inside RuntimeException objects, so they become the “cause” of those exceptions.

In TurnOffChecking, you can see that it’s possible to call throwRuntimeException( ) with no try block because the method does not throw any checked exceptions. However, when you’re ready to catch exceptions, you still have the ability to catch any exception you want by putting your code inside a try block. You start by catching all the exceptions you explicitly know might emerge from the code in your try block—in this case, SomeOtherException is caught first. Lastly, you catch RuntimeException and throw the result of getCause( ) (the wrapped exception). This extracts the originating exceptions, which can then be handled in their own catch clauses.

The technique of wrapping a checked exception in a RuntimeException will be used when appropriate throughout the rest of this book.

Thinking in Java
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