EJ-58 Use checked exceptions for recoverable conditions and runtime exceptions for programming errors

Ref: Effective Java by Joshua Bloch

The Java programming language provides three kind of throwables:

• Checked Exceptions
• Runtime Exceptions (Unchecked)
• Errors

The cardinal rule in deciding whether to use a checked or an unchecked exception is this: use checked exceptions for conditions from which the caller can reasonably be expected to recover. By throwing a checked exception, you force the caller to handle the exception in a catch clause or to propagate it to out-ward.

Use runtime exceptions to indicate programming errors. The great majority of runtime exceptions indicate precondition violations.

While the Java Language Specification does not require it, there is a strong convention that errors are reserved for use by the JVM to indicate resource deficiencies, invariant failures, or other conditions that make it impossible to continue execution. Given the almost universal acceptance of this convention, it's best not to implement any new Error subclass. Therefore, all of the unchecked throwables you implement should subclass RuntimeException (directly or indirectly). See its subclasses from java doc to have an idea about conditions of RuntimeExceptions:

AnnotationTypeMismatchException, ArithmeticException, ArrayStoreException, BufferOverflowException, BufferUnderflowException, CannotRedoException, CannotUndoException, ClassCastException, CMMException, ConcurrentModificationException, DataBindingException, DOMException, EmptyStackException, EnumConstantNotPresentException, EventException, FileSystemAlreadyExistsException, FileSystemNotFoundException, IllegalArgumentException, IllegalMonitorStateException, IllegalPathStateException, IllegalStateException, IllformedLocaleException, ImagingOpException, IncompleteAnnotationException, IndexOutOfBoundsException, JMRuntimeException, LSException, MalformedParameterizedTypeException, MirroredTypesException, MissingResourceException, NegativeArraySizeException, NoSuchElementException, NoSuchMechanismException, NullPointerException, ProfileDataException, ProviderException, ProviderNotFoundException, RasterFormatException, RejectedExecutionException, SecurityException, SystemException, TypeConstraintException, TypeNotPresentException, UndeclaredThrowableException, UnknownEntityException, UnmodifiableSetException, UnsupportedOperationException, WebServiceException, WrongMethodTypeException

Here is subclasses of Error

AnnotationFormatError, AssertionError, AWTError, CoderMalfunctionError, FactoryConfigurationError, FactoryConfigurationError, IOError, LinkageError, ServiceConfigurationError, ThreadDeath, TransformerFactoryConfigurationError, VirtualMachineError