Chapter 7.1.2 : Multiple catch Blocks

A try block can be followed by multiple catch blocks. The syntax for multiple catch blocks looks like the following:

try

{

   //Protected code

}catch(ExceptionType1 e1)

{

   //Catch block

}catch(ExceptionType2 e2)

{

   //Catch block

}catch(ExceptionType3 e3)

{

   //Catch block

}

The previous statements demonstrate three catch blocks, but you can have any number of them after a single try. If an exception occurs in the protected code, the exception is thrown to the first catch block in the list. If the data type of the exception thrown matches ExceptionType1, it gets caught there. If not, the exception passes down to the second catch statement. This continues until the exception either is caught or falls through all catches, in which case the current method stops execution and the exception is thrown down to the previous method on the call stack.

Example:

Here is code segment showing how to use multiple try/catch statements.

try

{

   file = new FileInputStream(fileName);

   x = (byte) file.read();

}catch(IOException i)

{

   i.printStackTrace();

   return -1;

}catch(FileNotFoundException f) //Not valid!

{

   f.printStackTrace();

   return -1;

}