If you hate checked exceptions try this

code.md

Hate Checked Exceptions???

Try this little trick borrowed from Netty.

So you have an exception:

• you don't want to check
• you don't want to swallow
• you don't want to pollute the method signature

Consider the following class Throw:

public class Throw {

	public static <T> T unchecked(Throwable throwable) {
		return Throw.<T, RuntimeException>_unchecked(throwable);
	}

	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
	private static <T, E extends Throwable> T _unchecked(Throwable throwable)
		throws E {

		throw (E)throwable;
	}

}

I can help with all of the above and is applied in the following way:

T methodWithExceptionToBubble() {
	try {
		return getT();
	}
	catch (Exception e) {
		return Throw.unchecked(e);
	}
}

Through the power of generics erasure, this trick forgets the type of throwable, satisfies the return, and avoids the need to wrap the exception in a wrapper (such as RuntimeException).

Brilliant!

Note: There is a simplified version suggested by @bjhargrave below.

public class ThrowNoReturn {

	public static void unchecked(Throwable throwable) {
		ThrowNoReturn.<RuntimeException>_unchecked(throwable);
	}

	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
	private static <E extends Throwable> void _unchecked(Throwable throwable)
		throws E {

		throw (E)throwable;
	}

}

However, this removes the capacity to simplify the return case. One would have to add an extra return line to satisfy the compiler.

T methodWithExceptionToBubble() {
	try {
		return getA_T();
	}
	catch (Exception e) {
		ThrowNoReturn.unchecked(e);
		
		return null;
	}
}

We could debate which is better, for simplicity of code over use, but since I didn't create this I'm going to stick with the original design as the choice option.