Return statement and Try Catch problem

Question

Hi!!
I've got the next code:
public ResultSet DBSelectTeam(String query) {
try {
Statement s = con.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = s.executeQuery(query);
return rs;
} catch (Exception err) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "ERROR: " + err);
But I need a return statement in the catch-block, but I don't know what's the best option.
Help...
Many thanks.

Answer 1

The error message is: "missing return statement", Yes, I know.
You have to either return from the catch statement, or throw from the catch statement, or return or throw after the catch statement.
The only ways your method is allowed to complete is by returning a value or throwing an exception. As it stands, if an exception is thrown, you catch it, but then you don't throw anything and you don't return a value.
So, like I said: What would you return from within or after catch? There's no good value to return. The only remotely reasonable choice would be null, but that sucks because now the caller has to explicitly check for it.
So we conclude that catch shouldn't return anything. So catch must throw something. But what? You could wrap the SQLE in your own exception, but since the caller is dealing with JDBC constructs anyway (he has to handle the RS and close it and the Statement), there's no point in abstracting JDBC away. Plus he has to deal with SQLE anyway in his use of the RS and Statement. So you might as well just throw SQLE.
So since you're going to just throw SQLE anyway, just get rid of the try/catch altogether and declare your method throws SQLException