Find the unreachable statement in this code

[Shailendra Guggali]

What can be done to get the following code compile and run?
public float parseFloat( String s )
{
float f = 0.0f; // 1
try
{
f = Float.valueOf( s ).floatValue(); // 2
return f ; // 3
}
catch(NumberFormatException nfe)
{
f = Float.NaN ; // 4
return f; // 5
}
finally {
return f; // 6
}
return f ; // 7
}
I thought the unreachable statements were //7 after return in finally, //4 //5 as they may not be reached if not exception is thrown.
Can someone explain which all are unreachable and why???

[natarajan meghanathan]

only statement 7 is unreached. since u r returning from each block in the method, the control does not go that statement in any of the possible executions.

[Ganesh Narayanan]

Only line 7 of the code is unreached,since it has reached the finally block.
But the return value at the end of the function is required since the return type for the method is specified otherwise it fires an eroor

[Shailendra Guggali]

hi nat , Ganesh
statment no. 3 is also not reached - pls try to figure out how and why???

[Priya Kannan]

Hi Shailendra,
If statement #2 throws an exception ,control passes to the catch block.So #3 is unreachable.

[Anshuman Acharya]

as you said priya, if! but that is not a certainity, and yours is not an answer.

[Anshuman Acharya]

code compiles for me if i remove statement 7...
i am using version 1.2, which one are you using shailendra?

[Val Dra]

i think only 7th must be removed finally will always garanteed to run no matter what so last return statement will never get to run.

[Priya Kannan]

Aye,Aye,sir!
Code compiles smoothly with #7 commented out.
Hey Anshuman, thanks for correcting me.