Note

Flow control works in a <c:catch> the way it does in a try block—NOTHING runs inside the <c:catch> body after the exception.

In a regular Java try/catch, once the exception occurs, the code BELOW that point in the try block never executes—control jumps directly to the catch block. With the <c:catch> tag, once the exception occurs, two things happen:

Be careful about this. If you want to use the “var” exception object, you must wait until AFTER you get to the end of the <c:catch> body. In other words, there is simply no way to use any information about the exception WITHIN the <c:catch> tag body.

It’s tempting to think of a <c:catch> tag as being just like a normal Java code catch block, but it isn’t. A <c:catch> acts more like a try block, because it’s where you put the risky code. Except it’s like a try that never needs (or has) a catch or finally block. Confused? The point is—learn this tag for exactly what it is, rather than mapping it into your existing knowledge of how a normal try/catch works. And on the exam, if you see code within the <c:catch> tag that is below the point at which the exception is thrown, don’t be fooled.