junit will mark a test as being in "error state" if an exception is thrown from that method. For most usecases, this is essentially the same as failing a test (in the sense that a test that completed in error state did not succeed). A lot of test authors don't like the hassle (or the code-uglification) associated with handling checked exceptions.
E.g., Consider a test that should run a couple of methods and assert the end state of an object:
public class SomeTest
SomeObject so;
@Before
public void setUp() {
so = new SomeObject();
}
@Test
public void TestSomeFlow() {
try {
so.init();
// must catch in order to avoid a compilation error
} catch (InitExceptionIDontCareAbout e) {
fail ("init failed");
}
try {
so.doSomething();
// must catch in order to avoid a compilation error
} catch (SomeOtherExceptionIDontCareAbout e) {
fail ("doSomething failed");
}
assertTrue ("doSomething didn't work", so.isSomethingDone());
}
}
Now consider how much cleaner the code looks without exception handling:
public class SomeTest
SomeObject so;
@Before
public void setUp() {
so = new SomeObject();
}
// Any exception throwm will mean the test did not succeed
@Test
public void TestSomeFlow() throws Exception {
so.init();
so.doSomething();
assertTrue ("doSomething didn't work", so.isSomethingDone());
}
}