posted 22 years ago
Throwable is the base class of exceptions and errors that can occur. In this case, it is part of the declaration (throws Throwable) meaning that an exception or error can (but not necessarily will) occur during the call to finalize. This declaration is important, because when an exception occurs in a method, the method stops running, and the exception is passed to the caller of the method. Declaring it gives the calling method a heads up of what may be coming. It can either catch the exception (with a catch block) or declare that it will throw it up to its calling method.