On: All variables in Java must be final

[twir]

This is a great philosophy, but I'd hesitate to say "all" variables; sometimes it just doesn't work out.

ex, in class definition:

  final int foo;

In constructor:

  try {
    foo = 1;
  } catch ( Exception e ) {
    foo = 2;
  }

[lsb → twir]

If your try{} catch{} blocks were expressions, not statements, you could write

  foo = try { 1 } catch(Exception e) { 2 }

much like the foo = bool ? 1 : 2 ternary if statement, versus the if() {} else {} clauses.

[twir → lsb]

Wow, never knew one could do that.

[nradov → twir]

You can't do that. It would require a language change, to make try/catch blocks expressions.

[eldenbishop → nradov]

You can sort of do this in Groovy.

  def val = {try { 1 } catch(ex) { 2 }}.call()
  assert(1 == val)

[twir → nradov]

Heh, I didn't think so. ;)

[nradov → twir]

In cases like that I usually exact the try/catch block into a separate private method which returns an int. Then the constructor can just call that method and use the return value to set foo.