Some compact Groovy syntax to ignore specific exceptions.

ignoring.groovy

// you can make a construct for those 
// times you want to ignore exceptions:

// here's the closure that can ignore things
def ignoring = { Class<? extends Throwable> catchMe, Closure callMe ->
  try {
    callMe.call()
  } catch(e) {
    if (!e.class.isAssignableFrom(catchMe)) {
      throw e
    }
  }
}

// let's ignore a NumberFormatException
def i = 7
ignoring (NumberFormatException) {
  i = Integer.parseInt("f")
}
assert i == 7

// ignore a NullPointerException, though none occur
ignoring (NullPointerException) {
  i = Integer.parseInt("8")
}
assert i == 8

// unignored exceptions will still be thrown
try {
  ignoring (NullPointerException) {
    i = Integer.parseInt("f")
  }
  println 'unexpected failure to throw NumberFormatException'
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
  println "expected NumberFormatException was thrown"
}
println "i= ${i}"