Does it correct the way I catch the error?

[Elahe Shafie]

Dear friends,
I try to catch an error in this class but I am not sure about the palce that I put the try...catch.. could you please correct me if I am wrong in some part?
many thanks,
Elahe

package com.srs.veltools;
/**
 *
 * @author  ES
 * @version
 */
public class Tool1 {
  public String getShortDesc(String strLong, int nMax)
  {
    try{
      String strShort = strLong.substring(0,nMax);
      return strShort;
    }
    catch( StringIndexOutOfBoundsException error) {
      System.out.println("String index out of range " + error);
      throw error;
    }
  }
}//eoc

[Jamie Robertson]

you probably want to throw the exception from the method if you don't want to deal with it.

package com.srs.veltools;
/**
 *
 * @author  ES
 * @version
 */
public class Tool1 {
  public String getShortDesc(String strLong, int nMax) throws StringIndexOutOfBoundsException
  {
    // if String is shorter than the substring length, throw error to calling code
    String strShort = strLong.substring(0,nMax);
    return strShort;
  }
}//eoc

or if it is normal ( not an error ) to have to a substring length greater than the length of the String then deal with it in the method to avoid the error.

public String getShortDesc(String strLong, int nMax) 
{
   if ( nMax >= strLong.length() )
   {
      //is shorter than substring length, but that's OK!
      return strLong; 
   }
   else
   {
      return strLong.substring(0,nMax);
    }
}

The former is more of a "What the heck! a String shorter than the substring length! Stop the program, we have an error!" compared to the latter code block which is more of a "Just wanted to make sure the String was shorter than the specified max. Carry on."
Jamie

[Elahe Shafie]

Many thanks Jamie GOT IT GOT IT