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Re: Way to avoid repeating to catch the same exception in overridden method

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On Fri, 23 Oct 2015 11:00:33 +0200, Silvio wrote:

> As others already stated something is fishy if getXXX() without
> parameters can throw an exception unless you have defined that getting
> XXX when the object does not have an XXX at all is invalid. But in that
> case there should also be something to query that, say a hasXXX() or
> something similar. Returning null to indicate a missing value might
> simply work here as well.
> 
> I think it is a bad idea to try to hide the exception from the user by
> filling in empty values. The result will be wrong anyway but neither the
> user nor yourself will be alerted.
> 
> At the very least replace the COMPLETE toString result with a value that
> indicates that something is wrong and show that to the user. Also a lot
> simpler to code.
> 
> But by all means consider throwing the exception if it actually
> indicates a program error. If it doesn't then consider not throwing the
> exception in the first place.
> 
> 
+1

Returning null is common in both C and Java under these circumstances and 
is simple enough to check for. All you need to is to update the method-
level comment to say that null can be returned and describe the 
circumstances when this can occur (your project DOES mandate the use 
javadocs, doesn't it?).


-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |

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Thread

Way to avoid repeating to catch the same exception in overridden method mike <mikaelpetterson@hotmail.com> - 2015-10-19 01:02 -0700
  Re: Way to avoid repeating to catch the same exception in overridden method Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2015-10-19 12:11 -0400
    Re: Way to avoid repeating to catch the same exception in overridden method Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2015-10-23 08:59 +0200
  Re: Way to avoid repeating to catch the same exception in overridden method Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2015-10-19 12:26 +0000
  Re: Way to avoid repeating to catch the same exception in overridden method Silvio <silvio@internet.com> - 2015-10-23 11:00 +0200
    Re: Way to avoid repeating to catch the same exception in overridden method Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2015-10-23 10:32 +0000

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