Placement of return statement in a method with finally block

Question

I have a simple doubt. In the following two codes, in first return statement is placed inside a finally block

public int method1(){
    try{
        // Some Stuff
    } catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally{
        return 0;
    }
}

And in second return statement is placed as normal

public int method1(){
    try{
         // Some Stuff
    } catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally{

    }
    return 0;
}

Is there any difference between these two? And which can be used as better option? why?

You should never have a return statement inside of a finally block. This can over-write things that were done in the try block, and can lead to really convoluted logic. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Jan 18 '14 at 15:10
Anything that is returned in the finally block will actually override any exception or returned value that is inside the try/catch block. — Vinayak Pingale, Jan 18 '14 at 15:15

Itay Maman · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-18T15:30:45.953

6

It is not a good practice to have "return" in a finally block. The finally block can be executed due to two reasons:

(a) An exception was thrown by the try block (and not caught by catch block) - in this case the method will have no return value so a return something statement in the finally block will have no effect.

(b) the try block completed normally. If that block ends with a return something then you the code is a bit confusing to the reader, as there are now two return statements that are relevant and it is not clear which should take precedence over the other.

edited Jan 18 '14 at 15:30

answered Jan 18 '14 at 15:10

Itay Maman

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It is **always** bad practice. – MariuszS Jan 18 '14 at 15:11
*(a) ... in this case the method will have no return value* - I hope you mean an exception that wasnt catched in the `catch` branch. – kajacx Jan 18 '14 at 15:25

Placement of return statement in a method with finally block

1 Answers1