Why can't overriding methods throw exceptions broader than the overridden method?

Question

I was going through SCJP 6 book by Kathe sierra and came across this explanations of throwing exceptions in overridden method. I quite didn\'t get it. Can any one explain it

Answer 1

To illustrate this, consider:

public interface FileOperation {
  void perform(File file) throws FileNotFoundException;
}

public class OpenOnly implements FileOperation {
  void perform(File file) throws FileNotFoundException {
    FileReader r = new FileReader(file);
  }
}

Suppose you then write:

public class OpenClose implements FileOperation {
  void perform(File file) throws FileNotFoundException {
    FileReader r = new FileReader(file);
    r.close();
  }
}

This will give you a compilation error, because r.close() throws an IOException, which is broader than FileNotFoundException.

To fix this, if you write:

public class OpenClose implements FileOperation {
  void perform(File file) throws IOException {
    FileReader r = new FileReader(file);
    r.close();
  }
}

You will get a different compilation error, because you are implementing the perform(...) operation, but throwing an exception not included in the interface's definition of the method.

Why is this important? Well a consumer of the interface may have:

FileOperation op = ...;
try {
  op.perform(file);
}
catch (FileNotFoundException x) {
  log(...);
}

If the IOException were allowed to be thrown, the client's code is nolonger correct.

Note that you can avoid this sort of issue if you use unchecked exceptions. (I am not suggesting you do or don't, that is a philosophical issue)