Question

What are the rules for using try/catch statements, as opposed to just throwing an Exception and within the method declaration adding “throws Exception” ?

Should the try/catch just be for the client code and the “throws Exception” be within the API methods?

Answer 1

The general logic with checked exceptions is – if you can take measures in the exceptional situation, do so. Otherwise – rethrow up.

Note that throws Exception should be avoided, but I’ll assume you mean throw SomeException – be as concrete as possible.

The real benefit of checked exceptions is limited, but they are overused. That leads to (in many cases justified) simply wrapping them in an unchecked exception:

} catch (CheckedException ex) {
     throw new IllegalStateException(ex);
}

I’ve shared my thoughts on the matter here.