Thats what I love about this forum - people respond real quick ! Thanks !
OK, Paul:
Nested exceptions IMHO are always bad - you get ugly, hard to read code.
Exactly what I'm trying to prevent - I agree, it is ugly and hard to read.
In your example, you catch the same exceptions twice. Why?
OK, so not the best example (but it is a real example). But equally, it could be calling methods that throw different exceptions - how would you deal with that ?
Mark - I like the sound of what you're saying - I look forward to reading your examples.
Marilyn - I very much like your solution - thats pretty neat !
Thanks to all - look forward to reading more comment on this subject !