Why do Java people frequently consume exceptions silently?

Question

I never did any serious Java coding before, but I learned the syntax, libraries, and concepts based on my existing skills (Delphi & C#). One thing I hardly understand i

Answer 1

As others have pointed out, the reason you see this is for one of three reasons:

1. An IDE generated the try-catch block
   • The code was copied and pasted
   • The developer put the stacktrace in to debug but never came back to handle the exception properly

The last point is the least likely to occur. I say this because I don't think anyone really debugs this way. Stepping through code with a debugger is a much easier way to debug.

The best description of what should be done in a catch block can be found in Chapter 9 of Effective Java by Joshua Bloch.