What classes of exceptions may be caught by a catch clause

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A catch clause can catch any exception that may be assigned to the Throwable type. This includes the Error and Exception types.

In Core Java, catch clauses are used to handle exceptions. There are three types of exceptions in Java, and a catch clause can catch and handle exceptions of these types:

  1. Checked Exceptions (or Compile-Time Exceptions):
    • These are exceptions that are checked at compile time. This means that the compiler checks to see if your code handles these exceptions.
    • Examples include IOException, SQLException, etc.

    Example catch block for checked exception:

    java
    try {
    // code that may throw a checked exception
    } catch (IOException e) {
    // handle IOException
    }
  2. Unchecked Exceptions (or Runtime Exceptions):
    • These are exceptions that are not checked at compile time. They occur at runtime and are typically caused by logical errors in the program.
    • Examples include NullPointerException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException, etc.

    Example catch block for unchecked exception:

    java
    try {
    // code that may throw an unchecked exception
    } catch (NullPointerException e) {
    // handle NullPointerException
    }
  3. Error:
    • Errors are exceptional conditions that are external to the application, and the application usually should not catch these.
    • Examples include OutOfMemoryError, StackOverflowError, etc.

    Example catch block for an error:

    java
    try {
    // code that may throw an error
    } catch (OutOfMemoryError e) {
    // handle OutOfMemoryError
    }

In summary, catch clauses in Java can catch and handle exceptions of types Checked Exceptions, Unchecked Exceptions, and Errors. It’s important to note that catching errors is generally discouraged because errors usually indicate serious problems that may not be recoverable.