Exception Ordering

Exceptions caught in a catch block must be caught in order of precedence, starting with the most specific and ending with the most general. The following code will compile:

    try {
     
      InputStream fis = new FileInputStream("Myile.txt");
      // DO more stuff here
      fis.close();
     
    } catch(FileNotFoundException fnfe) {
      System.out.println("File has not been found");
    } catch(IOException ioe) {
      System.out.println("There has been an IOException");
    } catch(Exception e) {
      System.out.println("An exception has been thrown");
    } catch(Throwable t) {
      System.out.println("Something has been thrown");
    }

whilst this code will not:

    try {
     
      InputStream fis = new FileInputStream("Myile.txt");
      // DO more stuff here
      fis.close();
     
    } catch(Throwable t) {
      System.out.println("Something has been thrown");
    } catch(FileNotFoundException fnfe) {
      System.out.println("File has not been found");
    } catch(Exception e) {
      System.out.println("An exception has been thrown");
    } catch(IOException ioe) {
      System.out.println("There has been an IOException");
    }

This seems a little strange to me, why shouldn’t you be able to put them in any order?