What are best practices for working with Error vs Exception?

In Java, understanding the distinction between Errors and Exceptions is crucial for effective error handling. Errors are problems that cannot be reasonably recovered from, while Exceptions are conditions that a program might want to catch and handle. Here are some best practices to follow when working with these two concepts:

  • Use checked exceptions for recoverable conditions: Create custom exceptions that allow callers to recover from the error.
  • Use unchecked exceptions for programming errors: Utilize RuntimeException to signal logic errors that should not be caught during normal execution.
  • Avoid catching Error: Do not attempt to catch Errors as they represent serious issues that are outside the application’s control.
  • Always clean up resources: Use "try-with-resources" or finally block to ensure that resources are properly released, even when exceptions occur.
  • Log exceptions: Always log the stack trace of exceptions for debugging purposes. This will offer insight into what went wrong.

By following these best practices, you can create robust and maintainable Java applications that handle errors and exceptions gracefully.

// Example of exception handling in Java try { // Code that may throw an exception int result = divideNumbers(10, 0); } catch (ArithmeticException e) { System.out.println("Cannot divide by zero: " + e.getMessage()); } finally { System.out.println("Cleaning up resources..."); } public static int divideNumbers(int a, int b) { return a / b; }

Error Exception Java error handling programming best practices