EmptyCatchBlock

Empty Catch Block finds instances where an exception is caught, but nothing is done. In most circumstances, this swallows an exception which should either be acted on or reported.

This rule is defined by the following XPath expression:

    
//CatchStatement
 [count(Block/BlockStatement) = 0 and ($allowCommentedBlocks != 'true' or Block/@containsComment = 'false')]
 [FormalParameter/Type/ReferenceType
   /ClassOrInterfaceType[@Image != 'InterruptedException' and @Image != 'CloneNotSupportedException']
 ]
 
             

Example:

                
  
public void doSomething() {
  try {
    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("/tmp/bugger");
  } catch (IOException ioe) {
      // not good
  }
}
 
      
            

This rule has the following properties:

NameDefault valueDescription
allowCommentedBlocks Empty blocks containing comments will be skipped