java.lang
Class ClassNotFoundException

java.lang.Object
  extended byjava.lang.Throwable
      extended byjava.lang.Exception
          extended byjava.lang.ClassNotFoundException
All Implemented Interfaces:
Serializable

public class ClassNotFoundException
extends Exception

Thrown when an application tries to load in a class through its string name using:

but no definition for the class with the specified name could be found.

As of release 1.4, this exception has been retrofitted to conform to the general purpose exception-chaining mechanism. The "optional exception that was raised while loading the class" that may be provided at construction time and accessed via the getException() method is now known as the cause, and may be accessed via the Throwable.getCause() method, as well as the aforementioned "legacy method."

Since:
JDK1.0
See Also:
Class.forName(java.lang.String), ClassLoader.findSystemClass(java.lang.String), ClassLoader.loadClass(java.lang.String, boolean), Serialized Form

Method Summary
 Throwable fillInStackTrace()
public Throwable fillInStackTrace()
Fills in the execution stack trace. This method records within this Throwable object information about the current state of the stack frames for the current thread.

Returns:
a reference to this Throwable instance.
See Also:
Throwable.printStackTrace()
 Throwable getCause()
public Throwable getCause()
Returns the the cause of this exception (the exception that was raised if an error occurred while attempting to load the class; otherwise null).

Overrides:
getCause in class Throwable
Returns:
the cause of this exception.
Since:
1.4
 Throwable getException()
public Throwable getException()
Returns the exception that was raised if an error occurred while attempting to load the class. Otherwise, returns null.

This method predates the general-purpose exception chaining facility. The Throwable.getCause() method is now the preferred means of obtaining this information.

Returns:
the Exception that was raised while loading a class
Since:
1.2
 String getLocalizedMessage()
public String getLocalizedMessage()
Creates a localized description of this throwable. Subclasses may override this method in order to produce a locale-specific message. For subclasses that do not override this method, the default implementation returns the same result as getMessage().

Returns:
The localized description of this throwable.
Since:
JDK1.1
 String getMessage()
public String getMessage()
Returns the detail message string of this throwable.

Returns:
the detail message string of this Throwable instance (which may be null).
 StackTraceElement[] getStackTrace()
public StackTraceElement[] getStackTrace()
Provides programmatic access to the stack trace information printed by Throwable.printStackTrace(). Returns an array of stack trace elements, each representing one stack frame. The zeroth element of the array (assuming the array's length is non-zero) represents the top of the stack, which is the last method invocation in the sequence. Typically, this is the point at which this throwable was created and thrown. The last element of the array (assuming the array's length is non-zero) represents the bottom of the stack, which is the first method invocation in the sequence.

Some virtual machines may, under some circumstances, omit one or more stack frames from the stack trace. In the extreme case, a virtual machine that has no stack trace information concerning this throwable is permitted to return a zero-length array from this method. Generally speaking, the array returned by this method will contain one element for every frame that would be printed by printStackTrace.

Returns:
an array of stack trace elements representing the stack trace pertaining to this throwable.
Since:
1.4
 Throwable initCause(Throwable cause)
public Throwable initCause(Throwable cause)
Initializes the cause of this throwable to the specified value. (The cause is the throwable that caused this throwable to get thrown.)

This method can be called at most once. It is generally called from within the constructor, or immediately after creating the throwable. If this throwable was created with Throwable.Throwable(Throwable) or Throwable.Throwable(String,Throwable), this method cannot be called even once.

Parameters:
cause - the cause (which is saved for later retrieval by the Throwable.getCause() method). (A null value is permitted, and indicates that the cause is nonexistent or unknown.)
Returns:
a reference to this Throwable instance.
Throws:
IllegalArgumentException - if cause is this throwable. (A throwable cannot be its own cause.)
IllegalStateException - if this throwable was created with Throwable.Throwable(Throwable) or Throwable.Throwable(String,Throwable), or this method has already been called on this throwable.
Since:
1.4
 void printStackTrace()
public void printStackTrace()
Prints this throwable and its backtrace to the standard error stream. This method prints a stack trace for this Throwable object on the error output stream that is the value of the field System.err. The first line of output contains the result of the Throwable.toString() method for this object. Remaining lines represent data previously recorded by the method Throwable.fillInStackTrace(). The format of this information depends on the implementation, but the following example may be regarded as typical:
 java.lang.NullPointerException
         at MyClass.mash(MyClass.java:9)
         at MyClass.crunch(MyClass.java:6)
         at MyClass.main(MyClass.java:3)
 
This example was produced by running the program:
 class MyClass {
     public static void main(String[] args) {
         crunch(null);
     }
     static void crunch(int[] a) {
         mash(a);
     }
     static void mash(int[] b) {
         System.out.println(b[0]);
     }
 }
 
The backtrace for a throwable with an initialized, non-null cause should generally include the backtrace for the cause. The format of this information depends on the implementation, but the following example may be regarded as typical:
 HighLevelException: MidLevelException: LowLevelException
         at Junk.a(Junk.java:13)
         at Junk.main(Junk.java:4)
 Caused by: MidLevelException: LowLevelException
         at Junk.c(Junk.java:23)
         at Junk.b(Junk.java:17)
         at Junk.a(Junk.java:11)
         ... 1 more
 Caused by: LowLevelException
         at Junk.e(Junk.java:30)
         at Junk.d(Junk.java:27)
         at Junk.c(Junk.java:21)
         ... 3 more
 
Note the presence of lines containing the characters "...". These lines indicate that the remainder of the stack trace for this exception matches the indicated number of frames from the bottom of the stack trace of the exception that was caused by this exception (the "enclosing" exception). This shorthand can greatly reduce the length of the output in the common case where a wrapped exception is thrown from same method as the "causative exception" is caught. The above example was produced by running the program:
 public class Junk {
     public static void main(String args[]) { 
         try {
             a();
         } catch(HighLevelException e) {
             e.printStackTrace();
         }
     }
     static void a() throws HighLevelException {
         try {
             b();
         } catch(MidLevelException e) {
             throw new HighLevelException(e);
         }
     }
     static void b() throws MidLevelException {
         c();
     }   
     static void c() throws MidLevelException {
         try {
             d();
         } catch(LowLevelException e) {
             throw new MidLevelException(e);
         }
     }
     static void d() throws LowLevelException { 
        e();
     }
     static void e() throws LowLevelException {
         throw new LowLevelException();
     }
 }

 class HighLevelException extends Exception {
     HighLevelException(Throwable cause) { super(cause); }
 }

 class MidLevelException extends Exception {
     MidLevelException(Throwable cause)  { super(cause); }
 }
 
 class LowLevelException extends Exception {
 }
 

 void printStackTrace(PrintStream s)
public void printStackTrace(PrintStream s)
Prints this throwable and its backtrace to the specified print stream.

Parameters:
s - PrintStream to use for output
 void printStackTrace(PrintWriter s)
public void printStackTrace(PrintWriter s)
Prints this throwable and its backtrace to the specified print writer.

Parameters:
s - PrintWriter to use for output
Since:
JDK1.1
 void setStackTrace(StackTraceElement[] stackTrace)
public void setStackTrace(StackTraceElement[] stackTrace)
Sets the stack trace elements that will be returned by Throwable.getStackTrace() and printed by Throwable.printStackTrace() and related methods. This method, which is designed for use by RPC frameworks and other advanced systems, allows the client to override the default stack trace that is either generated by Throwable.fillInStackTrace() when a throwable is constructed or deserialized when a throwable is read from a serialization stream.

Parameters:
stackTrace - the stack trace elements to be associated with this Throwable. The specified array is copied by this call; changes in the specified array after the method invocation returns will have no affect on this Throwable's stack trace.
Throws:
NullPointerException - if stackTrace is null, or if any of the elements of stackTrace are null
Since:
1.4
 String toString()
public String toString()
Returns a short description of this throwable. If this Throwable object was created with a non-null detail message string, then the result is the concatenation of three strings:
  • The name of the actual class of this object
  • ": " (a colon and a space)
  • The result of the Throwable.getMessage() method for this object
If this Throwable object was created with a null detail message string, then the name of the actual class of this object is returned.

Overrides:
toString in class Object
Returns:
a string representation of this throwable.
 
Constructor Summary
ClassNotFoundException()
public ClassNotFoundException()
Constructs a ClassNotFoundException with no detail message.

ClassNotFoundException(String s)
public ClassNotFoundException(String s)
Constructs a ClassNotFoundException with the specified detail message.

Parameters:
s - the detail message.
ClassNotFoundException(String s, Throwable ex)
public ClassNotFoundException(String s,
                              Throwable ex)
Constructs a ClassNotFoundException with the specified detail message and optional exception that was raised while loading the class.

Parameters:
s - the detail message
ex - the exception that was raised while loading the class
Since:
1.2