try, catch,finally

[Vsam hr]

Hi,
I just tried the following try-catch-finally code. When i executed it, the output printed was
HELLO
4

My question is When does the 'finally' block exactly get executed? Becuase it prints all that is there is 'try' block skips the 'return 2' statement and executes 'finally'. How does it skip that particular statement? I understand that finally is always executed even when there is exception but managing to skip exactly that particular 'return' statement in 'try' block is what puzzles me..

    
class ABC
{
	
	private static int func()
	{
		
		try
		{	
		     System.out.println("HELLO");
			return 2;
		}
		catch (Exception e) {  return 3; }
		finally
		{
			//System.out.println("HI");
			return 4;
		}
	}
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{	
		int a=0;
		a = func();
		System.out.println(a);
			
	}
}

Is there some priority stuff in this meaning... does try-catch-finally block has more priority than a 'return' statement?

Thanks

[Rob Spoor]

It doesn't skip the "return 2" -- it overrules it with "return 4". If a finally block returns a value or throws an exception this will overrule the return value / exception from the try or catch block. For example, the following example shows no output at all -- the exception is simply ignored.

public class Test
{
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {
        try
        {
            throw new RuntimeException();
        }
        finally
        {
            return;
        }
    }
}

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

The way to think about it is just that the code in a "finally" block always executes after the corresponding try block (and after any catch blocks that are used). The only time a "finally" block is skipped is if the thread that's executing the code is terminated, which will happen only if System.exit is called, if the JVM crashes, or if someone calls the "Thread.stop()" method. There are no notions of priority.

This means, if you think about it, that putting "return" into a finally block is virtually always a very bad idea. As you see here, if both a try and a finally include "return", then the try block's return value is ignored.

[Rob Spoor]

I agree with Ernest about returning from a finally block. If you need to return the same value regardless of whether or not the try block is successful or not, you should put the return statement after the try-catch-finally.

[Unnikrishnan Nair]

Guys, consider finally as a cleanup place where you release back the resources which you might have acquired in try block. Its a bad practice to return from finally

[Abimaran Kugathasan]

Have a look on this, wonderful explanations!

[akhilesh bar]

Hi Huk

you are right that the finally block always executes even if there is an exception...so mind it that finally always executes at the end of all the blocks right..
According to your code first try block executes and prints HELLO then the return 2 statement executes but wait a minute ..you know the finally block is still there to execute..so before going back to the calling statement it will execute the finally block and will return 4 by overwriting (you can say replacing 2 from 4)....stored in a..thus the output
HELLO
4

I think these steps made some doubts clear to you !!

Am i right seniors???

[Rob Spoor]

Yes you are.

[Shanky Sohar]

Link given above is very good.
Must read it.

Happy Learning