Returning from a finally block in Java

Question

I was surprised recently to find that it\'s possible to have a return statement in a finally block in Java.

It seems like lots of people think it\'s a bad thing to d

Answer 1

A simple Groovy Test:

public class Instance {

  List runningThreads = new ArrayList()

  void test(boolean returnInFinally) {

    println "\ntest(returnInFinally: $returnInFinally)"
    println "--------------------------------------------------------------------------"
    println "before execute"
    String result = execute(returnInFinally, false)
    println "after execute -> result: " + result
    println "--------------------------------------------------------------------------"

    println "before execute"
    try {
      result = execute(returnInFinally, true)
      println "after execute -> result: " + result
    } catch (Exception ex) {
      println "execute threw exception: " + ex.getMessage()
    }  
    println "--------------------------------------------------------------------------\n"

  }

  String execute(boolean returnInFinally, boolean throwError) {
      String thread = Thread.currentThread().getName()
      println "...execute(returnInFinally: $returnInFinally, throwError: $throwError) - thread: $thread"
      runningThreads.add(thread)
      try {
        if (throwError) {
          println "...error in execute, throw exception"
          throw new Exception("as you liked :-)")
        }
        println "...return 'OK' from execute"
        return "OK"
      } finally {
        println "...pass finally block"
        if (returnInFinally) return "return value from FINALLY ^^"
        // runningThreads.remove(thread)
      }
  }
}

Instance instance = new Instance()
instance.test(false)
instance.test(true)

Output:

test(returnInFinally: false)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
before execute
...execute(returnInFinally: false, throwError: false) - thread: Thread-116
...return 'OK' from execute
...pass finally block
after execute -> result: OK
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
before execute
...execute(returnInFinally: false, throwError: true) - thread: Thread-116
...error in execute, throw exception
...pass finally block
execute threw exception: as you liked :-)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


test(returnInFinally: true)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
before execute
...execute(returnInFinally: true, throwError: false) - thread: Thread-116
...return 'OK' from execute
...pass finally block
after execute -> result: return value from FINALLY ^^
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
before execute
...execute(returnInFinally: true, throwError: true) - thread: Thread-116
...error in execute, throw exception
...pass finally block
after execute -> result: return value from FINALLY ^^
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question:

One interesting point for me was to see how Groovy deals with implicit returns. In Groovy it is possible to "return" from a method simply leaving a value at the end (without return). What do you think happens, if you uncomment the runningThreads.remove(..) line in the finally statement - will this overwrite the regular return value ("OK") and cover the exception?!