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Thread: Is stubbing out a catch block ever a valid thing to do?

  1. #1
    Junior Member pmc's Avatar
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    Default Is stubbing out a catch block ever a valid thing to do?

    JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
     
    highlightAll.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
    	public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
    		textArea.selectAll();
    		Highlighter highlighter = textArea.getHighlighter();
    		highlighter.removeAllHighlights();
    		try {
    			highlighter.addHighlight(0, textArea.getText().length(), DefaultHighlighter.DefaultPainter);
    		} catch (BadLocationException exception) {
    			// BadLocationException stubbed out - exception needs to be handled but can't occur here.
    		}
    	}
    });

    In the above code the JVM forces me to handle the BadLocationException that might be thrown by the call to the DefaultHighlighter. But, as I'm highlighting all text in the JTextArea, I pass in a start location of 0 and a stop location of the length of whatever text happens to be in the text area. As such, to my eyes, this code would never result in a BadLocation being passed and therefore would never result in a BadLocationException.

    A couple of questions then:

    Have I even understood the purpose of the possible cause of the BadLocatonExample exception correctly or is my assumption about bad start and stop locations incorrect to start with?

    If not am I also correct in that, due to the nature of what I'm attempting in the code, the exception could never be thrown?

    And lastly, if I am right about there being no possibility of the exception being thrown is it therefore valid to stub out the catch block as per my inline comment in the code?


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    Crazy Cat Lady KevinWorkman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is stubbing out a catch block ever a valid thing to do?

    If the Exception will never be thrown, what's the harm in putting in a simple error message or something? There are four options:

    The error never occurs and you don't do anything about it: everything is ok
    The error never occurs and you DO do something about it: everything is ok
    The error occurs and you don't do anything about it: this is bad
    The error occurs and you DO do something about it: everything is ok

    The point is, the only "bad" scenario is if you don't have anything in that block. What are you saving by keeping it empty? And I assure you that cases that you think will never throw an error invariable eventually do. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches by getting into the habit of never having an empty catch block.
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    Junior Member pmc's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is stubbing out a catch block ever a valid thing to do?

    	catch (BadLocationException exception) {
    		JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "o_O an error that can't happen just happened", "Impossible Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
    	}

    Adding code like the above for the sake of adding something surely doesn't really achieve anything but I take your point, the good habits are the ones worth forming when you're starting out.

    In fact I had added code just like the above (only with a slightly more relevant error message) originally but ended up with a niggling feeling of having added something pointless - all those many hours trying to write the tightest possible assembly language code has left me averse to adding anything I deem unnecessary I suppose.

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    Crazy Cat Lady KevinWorkman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is stubbing out a catch block ever a valid thing to do?

    Why not just a simple exception.printStackTrace()?
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    Junior Member pmc's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is stubbing out a catch block ever a valid thing to do?

    Yeah, that makes much more sense to me - appreciated.

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