Which is better/more efficient: check for bad values or catch Exceptions in Java

Question

Which is more efficient in Java: to check for bad values to prevent exceptions or let the exceptions happen and catch them?

Here are two blocks of sample code to ill

Answer 1

In my opinion you should have try/catch blocks around anything that could potentially throw exceptions, if only to have a safe running system. You have finer control of error responses if you check for possible data errors fist. So I suggest doing both.