Question

static void test() {
    try {
        System.out.print(x.toString() + " ");
    }
    finally { System.out.print("finally "); }
}

public static void main(String args[])
{
    try 
    {
        test(); 
    }
    catch (Exception ex) { System.out.print("exception "); 
}

The output is finally exception.

Why is there no error being thrown at compile time although try is not followed by catch in test()?

Answer 1

Java versions before version 7 allow for these three combinations of try-catch-finally:

try - catch
try - catch - finally
try - finally

The exception is probably a NullPointerException since there’s no x declared as a static field and initialized inline or in the main method. finally block will be always executed no matter of what’s going on in the try or/and catch block.