Testing for expected exceptions in JUnit

Unit tests are used to verify that a piece of code operates as the developer expects it to. Sometimes, that means checking that the code throws expected exceptions too. JUnit is the standard for unit testing in Java and provides several mechanisms for verifying exceptions were thrown. This article explores the options and their relative merits.

(Note: There are other good options for testing for exceptions using AssertJ, rather than vanilla JUnit. See https://www.baeldung.com/assertj-exception-assertion)
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Tags: exceptions, JUnit, tdd, unittesting

Exceptions versus Return Values

In a previous post here, I blogged about checked exceptions and how I felt they are a useful tool in your Java toolbox. It is generally accepted that errors, or unrecoverable events, should be dealt with using unchecked exceptions and that recoverable problems, or contingencies, should be dealt with using checked exceptions.

However, there is another option for dealing with recoverable problems, i.e. using return values.

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Tags: exceptions

Checked Exceptions

The use of checked exceptions in Java is still widely debated. This post contains thoughts on their use by Java experts such as James Gosling, Joshua Bloch (Effective Java) and Bruce Eckel (Thinking in Java), before countering some of the arguments against their use, such as how I don’t believe they break encapsulation, and that their use shouldn’t be limited to truly exceptional conditions. It finishes by looking at when alternatives to checked exceptions should be used. The overall slant of the article is that there are many reasons why Exceptions, including checked Exceptions, should still be a part of your Java arsenal.

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Tags: exceptions