Java Try Catch Finally blocks without Catch

Question

I\'m reviewing some new code. The program has a try and a finally block only. Since the catch block is excluded, how does the try block work if it encounters an exception

Answer 1

The Java Language Specification⁽¹⁾ describes how try-catch-finally is executed. Having no catch is equivalent to not having a catch able to catch the given Throwable.

• If execution of the try block completes abruptly because of a throw of a value V, then there is a choice:
  • If the run-time type of V is assignable to the parameter of any catch clause of the try statement, then …
    …
  • If the run-time type of V is not assignable to the parameter of any catch clause of the try statement, then the finally block is executed. Then there is a choice:
    • If the finally block completes normally, then the try statement completes abruptly because of a throw of the value V.
    • If the finally block completes abruptly for reason S, then the try statement completes abruptly for reason S (and the throw of value V is discarded and forgotten).

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(1) Execution of try-catch-finally