It sometimes makes a lot of sense to throw an exceptionfrom the constructor of a class; look at constructors ofthe java.net.URL for an example. But what do we do if we want a subclass that extends a superclass whose constructor throws an exception?Let us exemplify the problem. Suppose we have a class A defined as:
public class A { int iValue = 10; public A(int initValue) throws Exception { if(initValue<10) { throw new Exception("initial value smaller than 10"); } } } and a subclass of A defined as:
public class B extends A { private String iString = null; public B(int initValue, String initString) { super(initValue); iString = initString; } } Java compiler will not compile B, saying something like:
"Exception java.lang.Exception must be caught, or it must be declared in the throws clause of this constructor" Now, if you try to modify the code for class B to catch the exception on the call to super(...) as in:
public class B extends A { private String iString = null; public B(int initValue, String initString) { try { super(initValue); } catch(Exception e) { System.out.println(e.getMessage); } iString = initString; } }the Java compiler will complain something like:
"No constructor matching A() found in A" and "Constructor invocation must be the first thing in a method". So what do we do? Before answering the question and, thus, providing the solution, let us cover one of the subtleties of object orientation and class hierarchies.
Every instance of class B in our example has an implicitinstance of class A inseparably incorporated within it. In fact, an instance of class B is an implicit instance of class A. In fact, sound hierarchy design follows from generic superclasses whose attributes and behaviors are inherited by their subclasses.
So, If A's constructor throws an exception, it implies that the A instance could not be fully constructed. Therefore, the instance of B within which that instance of A resides cannot be created either.
In other words, not being able to successfully construct our super class implies that we cannot create our derived class?and since constructors are not "overridden", it doesn't make sense that we can override a base class's constructor with different behavior in a derived class. Either we successfully construct each "slice" of our object's inheritance tree, or we don't get an object at all.
Now, the solution: since B is inherently A (we can cast a subclass into its superclass, right?), and A's constructor throws Exception, B's constructor should throw at least the A's Exception. Note that it can throw more exceptions if need be. So, if we define B as:
public class B extends A { private String iString = null; public B(int initValue, String initString) throws Exception { super(initValue); iString = initString; } } If we use this method, the Java compiler will compile our classes successfully.
