exception flow

[Cristian Negresco]

Hi,
Why this code compiles?

public class Conversion
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
float d = parseFloat("1");
}
public static float parseFloat(String s)
{
float f = 0.0f; //1
try
{
f = Float.valueOf(s).floatValue(); //2
return f; //3
}
catch (NumberFormatException ex)
{
f= Float.NaN; //4
return f; //5
}
finally
{
return f; //6
}
//return f; //7
}
}
In my opininon the line 6 will never be reached, isn't it?
And the Float.valueOf() doesn't give any other exception that can be ignored by the catch and treated eventually by the finally. Neither Float.floatValue().
I'm quite confused.
Thanks,
..Cristian

[Cristian Negresco]

Hi,
I know that finally will always be executed, so the return in finally will erase the first return?, if I'll put:
finally
{
return 2*f;
}
I will check.
..Cristian

[Cristian Negresco]

Hi,
I think the confusion I've made was between consecutive "return" statements and "unreachable" behaviour.
It seems that it is allowed to have more than one return statements one after another if there is a way to guarantee that they will be exec. and finally is one way to do it.
BTW the q. was related to q 957639266007 form jqpus
..Cristian

[Junilu Lacar]

Try not to have too many return statements in your code, especially from within a try-catch-finally as it can lead to confusing code, as you have seen.
You are correct, finally is virtually guaranteed to execute, even when you have a return in the try or catch part. The most insidious bugs can be introduced when you have a return in you try/catch and also have a return in the finally. Don't do this in any code that you intend to put into production.


------------------
Junilu Lacar
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

[Neha Sawant]

hi
will the line 7 in the above code be executed.
If not then the code should not compile.
If an exception is caught and the finally is executed then does the code after finally execute.
Please could anyone explain.
Thanx
Neha