Try-catch-finally and then again a try catch

Question

I have often come across situations like :-

try{ 
     ...
     stmts
     ...
} 
catch(Exception ex) {
     ... 
     stmts
     ... 
} finally {
     connection.close // throws an exception
}

which still needs a try - catch block inside finally.

What is the best practice to overcome this?

Answer 1

Write a SQLUtils class that contains static closeQuietly methods that catch and log such exceptions, then use as appropriate.

You'll end up with something that reads like this:

public class SQLUtils 
{
  private static Log log = LogFactory.getLog(SQLUtils.class);

  public static void closeQuietly(Connection connection)
  {
    try
    {
      if (connection != null)
      {
        connection.close();
      }
    }
    catch (SQLExcetpion e)
    {
      log.error("An error occurred closing connection.", e);
    }
  }

  public static void closeQuietly(Statement statement)
  {
    try
    {
      if (statement!= null)
      {
        statement.close();
      }
    }
    catch (SQLExcetpion e)
    {
      log.error("An error occurred closing statement.", e);
    }
  }

  public static void closeQuietly(ResultSet resultSet)
  {
    try
    {
      if (resultSet!= null)
      {
        resultSet.close();
      }
    }
    catch (SQLExcetpion e)
    {
      log.error("An error occurred closing result set.", e);
    }
  }
}

And your client code will be something like:

Connection connection = null;
Statement statement = null;
ResultSet resultSet = null;
try 
{
  connection = getConnection();
  statement = connection.prepareStatement(...);
  resultSet = statement.executeQuery();

  ...
}
finally
{
  SQLUtils.closeQuietly(resultSet);
  SQLUtils.closeQuietly(statment);
  SQLUtils.closeQuietly(connection);
}

Update: since Java 7, the various JDBC interfaces extend java.lang.AutoCloseable and while the above code answers the original question, if you're writing code directly against the JDBC API, it can now be structured:

try (
  Connection connection = getConnection();
  PreparedStatement statement = connection.prepareStatement(...);
  ResultSet resultSet = statement.executeQuery()
)
{
  ...
}

Answer 2

As others have mentioned, a static closeQuietly utility is the way to go. One thing to add - if you are in the world of java.io rather than java.sql then there is a useful interface for exactly this purpose - java.io.Closeable

All the data sources and sinks in java.io implement this interface - all streams, channels, writers and readers. That way you can create a single utility to cope with the same "exception on close()" issue without requiring many overloaded versions.

e.g.

public class IoUtils {

  public static closeQuietly (Closeable closeable) {
    try {
      closeable.close();
    } catch (IOException logAndContinue) {
      ...
    }
  }

}

Answer 3

I usually did it this way:

try {
    try {
        ..
        stmts
        ...
    }
    finally {
       connection.close():
    }
} catch (Exception ex) {
     ..
     stmts
     ..    
}

I usually only used this when I wasn't using a library that took care of this plumbing for me.

As Imagist points out, this isn't technically the same as the finally will run before the catch but I think it solves the problem you were trying to solve.

Answer 4

Commons-io also has closeQuietly() for in and output streams. I'm using it all the time. It makes your code much more readable.

Answer 5

Don't hesitate use one more try ... catch inside finally.

Answer 6

In Java 10 you can write:

public void java10() throws SQLException {
    try (var connection = Connections.openConnection();
         var callableStatement = connection.prepareCall("my_call");
         var resultSet = callableStatement.executeQuery()) {

        while (resultSet.next()) {
            var value = resultSet.getString(1);
            System.out.println(value);
        }
    }
}

In Java 7, 8 and 9 you can write:

public void java7() throws SQLException {
    try (Connection connection = Connections.openConnection();
         CallableStatement callableStatement = connection.prepareCall("my_call");
         ResultSet resultSet = callableStatement.executeQuery()) {

        while (resultSet.next()) {
            String value = resultSet.getString(1);
            System.out.println(value);
        }
    }
}

In Java 6 you need to write all these lines:

public void java6() throws SQLException {
    Connection connection = Connections.openConnection();
    try {
        CallableStatement callableStatement = connection.prepareCall("my_call");
        try {
            ResultSet resultSet = callableStatement.executeQuery();
            try {
                while (resultSet.next()) {
                    String value = resultSet.getString(1);
                    System.out.println(value);
                }
            } finally {
                try {
                    resultSet.close();
                } catch (Exception ignored) {
                }
            }
        } finally {
            try {
                callableStatement.close();
            } catch (Exception ignored) {
            }
        }
    } finally {
        try {
            connection.close();
        } catch (Exception ignored) {
        }
    }
}

Answer 7

Generally you don't want to do anything more than log an exception which happens when closing a resource, so it should really go in its own try/catch. However, this is generic code that will happen often, so Don't Repeat Yourself, and put the close in a static method (as Nick Holt suggests) that way you won't have the two try/catch items in the same method, making the code easier to read and follow.

Answer 8

There is also handy Closeables#closeQuitely method in Google Guava library - it can be used for any Closeable

Answer 9

Can we have try block followed by finally bock and catch block later to that?

Answer 10

just remember .. finally always get execute either with try or catch ..