Question

Description:
I am always told by people check all your parameters all the time which results in a lot of if checks and try catches.

Question:
In the code below I cleaned the code such that only method that handles the exception handling is at the root method that is exposed publicly and not in the refactored private helper methods. Is this practice ok?

I’m not handling exceptions closer to the methods they could occur in but the code is much cleaner.

Code Notes:

• Method validateInputs() not included.
• ParameterObject a is derived let say from parameters created through “someCode”, it represents parameters I want to pass around. Anytime I have a need for more than 2 parameters i refactor those parameters to a parameter object.

Code:

public class UnderTest {

    public UnderTest() {}

    public boolean runWork(  String someValue ) throws CustomException
    {
        try
        {
            validateInputs();
            // someCode
            .
            .
            processWork(  ParameterObject a );
        }
        catch( Exception e )
        {
            logError(e);
        }
    }

    private void processWork( ParameterObject a  )
    {
        Operation1( ParameterObject a  );
        Operation2( ParameterObject a  );
    }

    private void Operation1( ParameterObject a  )
    {
        // someCode
    }

    private void Operation2( ParameterObject a  )
    {
        // someCode
    }

    private void logError(Exception e)
    {    
        throw new CustomException(e,"Message");
    }        
}

Answer 1

I tend to check arguments when they enter the class by some public API. In private methods I check only by assertions or not at all. This implies that I trust my own class a bit more.