Try/catch in Java

Tony picture Tony · Jan 15, 2010 · Viewed 94.4k times · Source

Could someone please give me a hint why this try and catch is not working? It throws a scanner exception instead of printing the message I expect.

import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.math.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Boolean test = true;
        while (test == true) {
            try {
                double x, y;
                String operator;
                Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
                Scanner scan_2 = new Scanner(System.in);
                Scanner ScanOperator = new Scanner(System.in);
                System.out.println(" Enter a double value: ");
                x = scan.nextDouble();
                System.out.println(" Enter another double value: ");
                y = scan_2.nextDouble();
                System.out.println(" Enter a operator for the operation you want to execute, or X if you want to quit: ");
                operator = ScanOperator.nextLine();
                if (operator.equals("x") || operator.equals("X")) {
                    test = false;
                    System.out.println("No calculation was made!!!");
                }
                System.out.println(Calculation(operator, x, y));
            } catch (NumberFormatException nfe) {
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Input must be a number.");
            }
        }
    }

    public static double Calculation(String operator, double x, double y) {
        double result = 0;
        double myAdd = 0;
        double mySub = 0;
        double myMult = 0;
        double myDiv = 0;
        double myPower = 0;
        double myMod = 0;

        if (operator.equals("+")) {
            myAdd = x + y;
            result = myAdd;
        } else if (operator.equals("-")) {
            mySub = x - y;
            result = mySub;
        } else if (operator.equals("*")) {
            myMult = x * y;
            result = myMult;
        } else if (operator.equals("/")) {
            myDiv = x / y;
            result = myDiv;
        } else if (operator.equals("^")) {
            myPower = Math.pow(x, y);
            result = myPower;
        } else if (operator.equals("%")) {
            myMod = x % y;
            result = myMod;
        } else {
        }

        return result;
    }
}

Answer

zmbush picture zmbush · Jan 15, 2010

Simple, the program throws ScannerException, but your try catch can only catch NumberFormatException, you need to add another catch clause in order to catch ScannerException, or catch only the generic Exception.

for example, when you say:

 } catch (NumberFormatException nfe) {     
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Input must be a number.");
 }

that is only specifying how to catch NumberFormatException.
In order to catch all exceptions, you would need to make it:

 } catch (NumberFormatException nfe) {     
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Input must be a number.");
 }catch (Exception e){
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Generic exception caught");
 }

In this case, the second catch would get everything that was not caught in the first catch because all exceptions extend the Exception class, you can catch all derived classes with that statement.

However, since catching Exception by itself is frowned upon, you could also do:

 } catch (NumberFormatException, ScannerException e) {     
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Input must be a number.");
 }

To catch both exceptions in the same block.