Because I believe it is a good programming practice, I make all my (local or instance) variables final
if they are intended to be written only once.
However, I notice that when a variable assignment can throw an exception you cannot make said variable final:
final int x;
try {
x = Integer.parseInt("someinput");
}
catch(NumberFormatException e) {
x = 42; // Compiler error: The final local variable x may already have been assigned
}
Is there a way to do this without resorting to a temporary variable? (or is this not the right place for a final modifier?)
One way to do this is by introducing a (non-final
) temporary variable, but you said you didn't want to do that.
Another way is to move both branches of the code into a function:
final int x = getValue();
private int getValue() {
try {
return Integer.parseInt("someinput");
}
catch(NumberFormatException e) {
return 42;
}
}
Whether or not this is practical depends on the exact use case.
All in all, as long as x
is a an appropriately-scoped local variable, the most practical general approach might be to leave it non-final
.
If, on the other hand, x
is a member variable, my advice would be to use a non-final
temporary during initialization:
public class C {
private final int x;
public C() {
int x_val;
try {
x_val = Integer.parseInt("someinput");
}
catch(NumberFormatException e) {
x_val = 42;
}
this.x = x_val;
}
}