Every time the subject of checked versus runtime exceptions comes up, someone cites Bruce Eckel as an argument by authority. This is unfortunate, because, as much as I like and respect Bruce, he is out to sea on this one. Nor is it merely a matter of opinion. In this case, Bruce is factually incorrect. He believes things about checked exceptions that just aren’t true; and I think it’s time to lay his misconceptions to rest once and for all.

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Checked exceptions never meant that every exception had to be caught as soon as it was thrown. It is perfectly acceptable to declare that a method throws a checked exception. Indeed, this is exactly how exceptions are meant to be used. It warns whoever calls your method that they need to be ready for this exceptional condition, and they either need to catch it and handle it themselves; or, they themselves need to declare that they throw it so that they warn their callers.