Throw userDefinedException cannot work with return type

Question

Hi all,
I have a servlet which will call method A. method A does some database sql statements.
public static Vector methodA(..) throws UserDefinedException {
....ResultSet...
....Connection...
....Vector returnVector=new Vector;
....try {
.......access database for whatever purpose
catch (UserDefinedException) {
throws new UserDefinedException.MY_MESSAGE;
finally () {
return returnVector;
in the servlet, which calls MethodA, it looks like this :
....Vector myVector = null;
try {
...myVector = <SomeClass>.methodA(...)
catch (UserDefinedException e) {
System.out.println("Exception is thrown out");
somehow, if there is user defined exception being thrown in methodA, its not catch in the calling servlet. ie
the println is not printed out.
However, when i remove the return vector, make methodA return void (nothing), the user defined exception is caught. Why is this so ?

Answer 1

A finally block always gets executed no matter what
happens, so when there is a return statement Java
seems to "forget" about the fact that an exception has
been thrown.
My advice: never return from anywhere in a try ..
catch .. finally block.Hmm...why would java forget it has to throw something ? Sounds funny. But i think your advice is good, never return anything from a try /catch/finally block. Should i return the object in the last line of my methodA then ? Because by then, everything should go smoothly and the return object should be a valid one.