Sun Certification Training Guide (310-025, 310-027): Java™ 2 Programmer and Developer Exams

Exceptions and Errors

The java.lang package establishes the Java exception hierarchy and declares numerous exceptions and errors. Errors are used to indicate the occurrence of abnormal and fatal events that should not be handled within application programs.

The Throwable Class

The Throwable class is at the top of the Java error-and-exception hierarchy. It is extended by the Error and Exception classes and provides methods that are common to both classes. These methods consist of stack tracing methods, the getMessage() method, and the toString() method, which is an override of the method inherited from the Object class. The getMessage() method is used to retrieve any messages that are supplied in the creation of Throwable objects.

The fillInStackTrace() ...