Exceptions: About finally

[mchen]

The following Q is from RHE chap 5. I am not sure that I get these are points right? Please help me! Thanks!
1. finally is not a "final catch" or is not a kind of "catch(...)" in c++. finally is just a simple "printf" statement? If finally is not a "finally catch", why need it?
2. if an exception is not catched, The excecution exits the method IMMEDIATLY? True or False?
try{
URL u=new URL(path);//assume path is a previously defined String
Object obj=in.readObject();// in is a valid ObjectInputStream
System.out.println("Success");
}
catch(MalformedURLException e){
System.out.println("Bad URL");
}
catch(StreamCorruptedException e){
System.out.println("Bad File Contents");
}
catch(Exception e){
System.out.println("General Exception");
}
finally{
System.out.println("Finally Part");
}
System.out.println("Carrying On");
What lines are output if the code at the line 3 throws a OutOfMemoryError? Choose all valid answers.
a. Success
b. Bad URL
c. Bad File Contents
d. General Exception
e. Finally part
f. Carrying On
Ans: e

[alanxparr]

Finally is not a "catch" statement, as it does not check explicity for exceptions that are thrown. You can think of "finally" as a default statement/code block that is sure to run whether an exception is thrown/caught or not. Programmers generally use the "finally" statement to be sure of clearing/closing allocated resources that could be corrupted when an exception is thrown. The only time "finally" is not executed is when the Thread calling the method enclosed in the try block dies for some reason.
Hope this helps.
Alan