Unreachable statement error occured while using return statement.

Question

Consider this code
class q25{
     public static void main(String args[]){
          amethod(args);
     public static void amethod(String args[]){
          String str;
          try{
               str = "Hello "+args[0];
               System.out.println(str);
               System.out.println("Returning to caller");
               System.exit(0);
          catch(Exception e){
               System.out.println("Exception ocured");
               System.exit(0);          
          finally{
               System.out.println("In finally");
          System.out.println("At the end of method");     
}Above code compiles and runs successfully without any errors.
Now consider below code which is same as above one except "System.exit(0)" statements were replace by "return" statements. Below code when compiled gives error as
"q25.java:22: unreachable statement
System.out.println("At the end of method");
^
1 error"
One thing i didn't understood in this context that, the above code when compiled should get same error as stated above. But not. It is obvious that presence of System.exit(0) must generate unreachable statement same as when it is replaced by "return" statement. What is the difference in getting the error for above but not for below code. Pls anyone help.
class q25{
     public static void main(String args[]){
          amethod(args);
     public static void amethod(String args[]){
          String str;
          try{
               str = "Hello "+args[0];
               System.out.println(str);
               System.out.println("Returning to caller");
               return;
          catch(Exception e){
               System.out.println("Exception ocured");
               return;     
          finally{
               System.out.println("In finally");
          System.out.println("At the end of method");     
}

Answer 1

warnerja wrote:
masijade. wrote:
Since you have a "return" in both the try and the catch portions of the try/catch block *(the second of which you should never do)* , anything thing that comes after the try/catch/finally blocks will be unreachable.That is not true. There are plenty of reasons to return from a catch block. If you handle the exception instead of rethrowing it or another exception, then you'll need a return somehow, either there or after the catch block. What you should never do is "return" in a finally block, because that will mask any exception in flight about to be thrown to the caller.Perhaps masijade's use of never is too strong, but I too prefer/tend to avoid using return anywhere in try/catch/finally to avoid potential gotchas. Consider:
public class TryCatchFinally
  public Data process(String s)
    Data returnData = new Data();
    try
      returnData.value = Integer.parseInt(s);
      returnData.message = "Success";
      return returnData;
    catch (Exception ex)
      returnData.value = -1;
      returnData.message = "Fail";
      return returnData;
    finally
      returnData.value = 42;
      returnData.message = "?";
  public static void main(String[] args)
    TryCatchFinally demo = new TryCatchFinally();
    Data d = demo.process("2");
    System.out.println(d.message + ": " + d.value);
    d = demo.process("2.1");
    System.out.println(d.message + ": " + d.value);
  class Data
    int value = 0;
    String message = "";
}