NoClassDefFoundError 和ClassNotFoundException的区别

NoClassDefFoundError是一个错误(Error)，而ClassNOtFoundException是一个异常，在Java中错误和异常是有区别的，我们可以从异常中恢复程序但却不应该尝试从错误中恢复程序。

加载时从外存储器找不到需要的class就出现ClassNotFoundException 
连接时从内存找不到需要的class就出现NoClassDefFoundError

maven工程时，如果对jar包添加有scope字段，并且作用域太小，运行时不存在jar包时，就会出现这个错误。简单处理方式就是去掉这个字段。

ClassNotFoundException发生在装入阶段。 

ClassNotFoundException的产生原因：

Java支持使用Class.forName方法来动态地加载类，任意一个类的类名如果被作为参数传递给这个方法都将导致该类被加载到JVM内存中，如果这个类在类路径中没有被找到，那么此时就会在运行时抛出ClassNotFoundException异常。

要解决这个问题很容易，唯一需要做的就是要确保所需的类连同它依赖的包存在于类路径中。当Class.forName被调用的时候，类加载器会查找类路径中的类，如果找到了那么这个类就会被成功加载，如果没找到，那么就会抛出ClassNotFountException，除了Class.forName，ClassLoader.loadClass、ClassLOader.findSystemClass在动态加载类到内存中的时候也可能会抛出这个异常。

另外还有一个导致ClassNotFoundException的原因就是：当一个类已经某个类加载器加载到内存中了，此时另一个类加载器又尝试着动态地从同一个包中加载这个类。

由于类的动态加载在某种程度上是被开发者所控制的，所以他可以选择catch这个异常然后采取相应的补救措施。有些程序可能希望忽略这个异常而采取其他方法。还有一些程序则会终止程序然后让用户再次尝试前做点事情。

NoClassDefFoundError： 发生在运行阶段。当目前执行的类已经编译，但是找不到它的定义时，编译时能找到，但是运行时找不到。

也就是说你如果编译了一个类B，在类A中调用，编译完成以后，你又删除掉B，运行A的时候那么就会出现这个错误

如果JVM或者ClassLoader实例尝试加载（可以通过正常的方法调用，也可能是使用new来创建新的对象）类的时候却找不到类的定义。要查找的类在编译的时候是存在的，运行的时候却找不到了。这个错误往往是你使用new操作符来创建一个新的对象但却找不到该对象对应的类。这个时候就会导致NoClassDefFoundError.

由于NoClassDefFoundError是有JVM引起的，所以不应该尝试捕捉这个错误。

解决这个问题的办法就是：查找那些在开发期间存在于类路径下但在运行期间却不在类路径下的类。

NoClassDefFoundError in Java comes when Java Virtual Machine is not able to find a particular class at runtime which was available during compile time. For example if we have a method call from a class or accessing any static member of a Class and that class is not available during run-time then JVM will throw NoClassDefFoundError. It’s important to understand that this is different than ClassNotFoundException which comes while trying to load a class at run-time only and name was provided during runtime not on compile time. Many Java developer mingle this two Error and gets confused.

 

In short NoClassDefFoundError will come if a class was present during compile time but not available in java classpath during runtime. 

Many a times we confused ourselves with java.lang.ClassNotFoundException and java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError, though both of them related to Java Classpath they are completely different to each other. ClassNotFoundException comes when JVM tries to load a class at runtime dynamically means you give the name of class at runtime and then JVM tries to load it and if that class is not found in classpath it throws java.lang.ClassNotFoundException. While in case of NoClassDefFoundError the problematic class was present during Compile time and that's why program was successfully compile but not available during runtime by any reason. NoClassDefFoundError is easier to solve than ClassNotFoundException in my opinion because here we know that Class was present during build time but it totally depends upon environment, if you are working in J2EE environment than you can get NoClassDefFoundError even if class is present because it may not be visible to corresponding ClassLoader.