JavaTM 2 Platform
Standard Ed. 5.0

java.lang
Class ClassNotFoundException

java.lang.Object
  extended by java.lang.Throwable
      extended by java.lang.Exception
          extended by java.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

Constructor Summary
ClassNotFoundException()
          Constructs a ClassNotFoundException with no detail message.
ClassNotFoundException(String s)
          Constructs a ClassNotFoundException with the specified detail message.
ClassNotFoundException(String s, Throwable ex)
          Constructs a ClassNotFoundException with the specified detail message and optional exception that was raised while loading the class.
 
Method Summary
 Throwable getCause()
          Returns the cause of this exception (the exception that was raised if an error occurred while attempting to load the class; otherwise null).
 Throwable getException()
          Returns the exception that was raised if an error occurred while attempting to load the class.
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Throwable
fillInStackTrace, getLocalizedMessage, getMessage, getStackTrace, initCause, printStackTrace, printStackTrace, printStackTrace, setStackTrace, toString
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait
 

Constructor Detail

ClassNotFoundException

public ClassNotFoundException()
Constructs a ClassNotFoundException with no detail message.


ClassNotFoundException

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

Parameters:
s - the detail message.

ClassNotFoundException

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
Method Detail

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

getCause

public Throwable getCause()
Returns 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

JavaTM 2 Platform
Standard Ed. 5.0

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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Also see the documentation redistribution policy.