What are the circumstances under which a finally {} block will NOT execute?

Question

In a Java try{} ... catch{} ... finally{} block, code within the finally{} is generally considered \"guaranteed\" to run regardless of what occurs

Answer 1

Another possible instance of a finally block never executing would be due to a design where the method returned before the try block was entered, as in the cases of some very bad code I've seen from time to time:

public ObjectOfSomeType getMeAnObjectOfSomeType() throws SomeHorrendousException {
    if (checkSomeObjectState()) {
        return new ObjectOfSomeType();
    }

    try {
        // yada yada yada...
    } catch (SomeHorrendousException shexc) {
        // wow, do something about this horrendous exception...
    } finally {
        // do some really important cleanup and state invalidation stuff...
    }

I know none of you would ever do this, so I hesitated to add this as a possible scenario, but thought, eh, it's Friday, what the heck ; )