try/catch best practice

[Dudley Dawson]

hi- i have a method that returns a string, which is derived from another method that throws an exception:

public String getValue(){
  Processor p = new Processor();
  String val = p.process();
  return(val);
}

p.process() throws an exception. if I place it within a try/catch block, then val is only in scope within that try/catch block, and I cannot return it outside of the block. If i put the return inside the block, I then have to put some other default return outside the block. Seems sloppy. Is there an elegant way to do this?

[Peter Chase]

Any objection to: -

public String getValue(){
  try
  {
    Processor p = new Processor();
    String val = p.process();
    return(val);
  }
  catch (MyException me)
  {
    me.dumpStackTrace();
    return DEFAULT_VALUE;
  }
}

[Anupam Sinha]

I would prefer

public String getValue(){
  Processor p = new Processor();
  String val = null;
  try {  
    val = p.process();
  } catch (WhateverException we) {
    we.printStackTrace();
  }
  return(val);
}

If need be initalize val to a default value.

It depends a lot on the program flow as well. Throwing the exception forward may also be a good idea depedning on where should the exception be handled.

[Brian Spindler]

Yeah I agree with Anupam, if the exception is handled elsewhere you could write:

 
public String getValue() throws WhateverException {
    /* Should process be static? */
    return new Process().process();
}  

Or the same with handling in the method:

 
public String getValue(){
  String val = null;
  try {  
    /* Should process be static? */
    val = new Process().process();
  } catch (WhateverException we) {
    we.printStackTrace();
  }
  return(val);
}

[ May 17, 2007: Message edited by: Brian Spindler ]