Checked and Unchecked Exceptions in Java

Checked exceptions: exceptions that are checked at compile time. 所以需要在方法上throws异常，或者用try-catch来处理异常，不然编译器会报错。Checked exceptions表示在正常work flow之外的错误。

// throws keyword
private static void checkedExceptionWithThrows() throws FileNotFoundException {
    File file = new File("not_existing_file.txt");
    FileInputStream stream = new FileInputStream(file);  // constructor抛出的异常
}

// try-catch
private static void checkedExceptionWithTryCatch() {
    File file = new File("not_existing_file.txt");
    try {
        FileInputStream stream = new FileInputStream(file);
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

The Exception class is the superclass of checked exceptions. Therefore, we can create a custom checked exception by extending Exception:

public class IncorrectFileNameException extends Exception {
    public IncorrectFileNameException(String errorMessage) {
        super(errorMessage);
    }
}

Unchecked exceptions: 反应的是程序的logic error。比如你要除以0，会抛ArithmeticException。

private static void divideByZero() {
    int numerator = 1;
    int denominator = 0;
    int result = numerator / denominator;
}

Java是不会在compile-time verify unchecked exception

The RuntimeException class is the superclass of all unchecked exceptions. Therefore, we can create a custom unchecked exception by extending RuntimeException:

public class NullOrEmptyException extends RuntimeException {
    public NullOrEmptyException(String errorMessage) {
        super(errorMessage);
    }
}

Checked vs Unchecked exception:
If a client can reasonably be expected to recover from an exception, make it a checked exception. If a client cannot do anything to recover from the exception, make it an unchecked exception.

For example, before we open a file, we can first validate the input file name. If the user input file name is invalid, we can throw a custom checked exception:

if (!isCorrectFileName(fileName)) {
    throw new IncorrectFileNameException("Incorrect filename : " + fileName );
}

In this way, we can recover the system by accepting another user input file name. However, if the input file name is a null pointer or it is an empty string, it means that we have some errors in the code. In this case, we should throw an unchecked exception:

if (fileName == null || fileName.isEmpty())  {
    throw new NullOrEmptyException("The filename is null or empty.");
}

Exception Hierarchy