IllegalArgumentException is not being caught or missing something

Question

The following code:

try {
    value = parse(myData);
} catch (Exception e) {
    if ( e instanceof IOException|| e instanceof IllegalArgumentException) {
       logger.debug("illegal argument");
    } else {
       logger.debug("this is printing");
    }
}

Parse method:

parse(String data) throws IOException, IllegalArgumentException {
   // do validation
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("illegal");
}

I was expecting "Illegal argument". But instead it shows "this is printing".

Did I miss anything here?

should work, are you sure you're not running an old version of the application? — Reimeus, Jul 09 '13 at 20:13
Same here, when copying the code into an empty project, it printed "illegal argument". — snrlx, Jul 09 '13 at 20:16
Nope. I can see the message "Illegal", which is thrown from parse. But its not being matched in if condition — Kevin Rave, Jul 09 '13 at 20:17
You are right. Its throwing some other exception. Please put this as an answer. I will accept it. — Kevin Rave, Jul 09 '13 at 20:24
You're better off answering your own question. I was just commenting do get you started. You still haven't told us how/why. — Sotirios Delimanolis, Jul 09 '13 at 20:26
When this IllegalArgumentException is thrown, its overridden by EJBTransactionException. Now the question is different, how not to have EJBTransactionException override the actual exception — Kevin Rave, Jul 09 '13 at 20:36
@KevinRave Is that because of some AOP aspect? You can't really prevent it. But afaik, the EJBTTransactionException will have an inner `cause` exception that should be yours. — Sotirios Delimanolis, Jul 09 '13 at 20:38

Kevin Rave · Answer 1 · 2013-07-09T20:48:42.760

2

I traced it. When this IllegalArgumentException is thrown, its wrapped by EJBTransactionRollbackException.

The following is thrown:

The transaction has been marked rollback only because the bean encountered a non-application 
exception :java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: 
Actual Exception class: class javax.ejb.EJBTransactionRolledbackException

Now the question is different, how not to have EJBTransactionException override the actual exception

edited Jul 09 '13 at 20:48

answered Jul 09 '13 at 20:40

Kevin Rave

13,876
35
109
173

2

Overriden is not then right word for this. The `EJBTransactionRollbackException` wraps the `IllegalArgumentException` and so the types don't match. You can just catch the exception and do `getCause()` to get yours. – Sotirios Delimanolis Jul 09 '13 at 20:42

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 09 '13 at 20:27

Just an idea. Are you sure you use classes from the same package on throw and catch sections. For example you can throw com.foo.bar.IllegalArgumentException in parse method but trying to catch java.lang.IllegalArgumentException So could you please check import section in case you have them in different classes.

IllegalArgumentException is not being caught or missing something

2 Answers2