Question

Is there some sort of exception in Java to catch an invalid Date object? I’m trying to use it in the following method, but I don’t know what type of exception to look for. Is it a ParseException.

public boolean setDate(Date date) {
        this.date = date;                
        return true;
    }

Answer 1

In the method you provide, there is no way to catch an exception, because none will be thrown by the simple assignment. All you can do is maybe the below change:

if(date == null) return false;

But even that’s not graceful. You may want to do something with this.date or throw an exception up if that’s the desired behavior.

What you are really seeking is either:

1. ParseException – thrown by a DateFormat object when it attempts to parse(), which would happen before your set method
2. IllegalArgumentException – thrown by a SimpleDateFormat constructor, again it would happen before your set method. Indicates you provided an invalid format string.

You’d want to catch one of those (probably #1). But it has to happen before your method call. Once you have a Date object, it is either null or valid.