Is it okay practice to have a constructor throw an exception?

Question

Or is it just plain bad practice and it's better to catch it instead.

Answer 1

I don't know if there is anything wrong with the/a
constructor throwing an exception. It is a way to
inform the user that something "bad" occurred during
creation of the object.
I usually don't do it. I have my constructor call a
method that encapsulates the code that may generate
an error.
public class MyExample
public MyExample()
try
aMethodThatPerformsIO();
catch(IOException ioe)
n ioe) {ioe.printStackTrace();}
private void aMethodThatPerformsIO() throws
ows IOException
//blah
Presumably aMethodThatPerformsIO initializes the state of the MyExample being constructed, yes? That's why you call it in a ctor, yes?
MyExample myEx = new MyExample(); // exception is thrown, stderr gets some bytes, object is not properly initialized, BUT...
myEx.doSomethingThatAssumesValidState(); // ...this still executes (or tries to) despite the assumption about valid state being violated like godlie at a biker bar.I'd rather have the ctor throw the exception, but that's JMAO.