Confused??? Exception problem...

[teekei]

I'm not understanding what I did wrong on this code but here is the code and then the build output.

public abstract class Employee throws MissingNameException, MissingSSNException
{
  /*
   *	You will need to add a throws clause to the class header.
   *	List each of the exceptions that may be thrown by the constructor
   */
   private String firstName;
   private String lastName;
   private String socialSecurityNumber;

   // three-argument constructor
   public Employee( String first, String last, String ssn )
   {
   	/*
   	 *	Before executing each "set" method, test the argument.
   	 *		Example:  if first is a null string, throw the exception indicatign a missing name,
   	 *						else, invoke setFirstName method
   	 */
      setFirstName( first );
      setLastName( last );
      setSocialSecurityNumber( ssn );

   } // end three-argument Employee constructor


   // set first name

   	public void setFirstName( String first ) throws MissingNameException
   	{
      	if (first == null)
   		{
   			try
   			{
   				throw new MissingNameException();
   			}
   			catch(MissingNameException missingNameException)
   			{
   				System.out.println(missingNameException);
   			}
   		}
   		else
   		{
   			firstName = first; // should validate
   		} // end method setFirstName
   	}

   // return first name
   public String getFirstName()
   {
      return firstName;
   } // end method getFirstName

   		// set last name
   	public void setLastName( String last ) throws MissingNameException
   	{
   		if (last == null)
   		{
			try
   			{
   				throw new MissingNameException();
   			}
   			catch(MissingNameException missingNameException)
   			{
   				System.out.println(missingNameException);
   			}
   		}
   		else
   		{
   			lastName = last; // should validate
   		} // end method setLastName
   	 }

   // return last name
   public String getLastName()
   {
      return lastName;
   } // end method getLastName

   	// set social security number
   	public void setSocialSecurityNumber( String ssn ) throws MissingSSNException
   	{
   		if (ssn == null)
   		{
   			try
   			{
   				throw new MissingSSNException();
   			}
   			catch (MissingSSNException missingSSNException)
   			{
   				System.out.println(missingSSNException);
   			}
   		}
   		else
   		{
      		socialSecurityNumber = ssn; // should validate
   		} // end method setSocialSecurityNumber
   	}

   // return social security number
   public String getSocialSecurityNumber()
   {
      return socialSecurityNumber;
   } // end method getSocialSecurityNumber


   // return String representation of Employee object
   @Override
   public String toString()
   {
      return String.format( "%s %s\nsocial security number: %s",
         getFirstName(), getLastName(), getSocialSecurityNumber() );
   } // end method toString


}// end abstract class Employee

BUILD OUTPUT

 '{' expected
public abstract class Employee throws MissingNameException, MissingSSNException
                              ^
1 error

Process completed

Here is the task view.....

'{' expected

Please help!

[sunde887]

What have you tried to fix it? With a glance it looks like you have messed up brackets somewhere.

Also, in some of your methods you throw an exception and immediately catch it, what's the point? You should just throw the exception when necessary, then when you call the method you handle possible exceptions.

This could be wrong, but it's easy to check, try removing the throws from the class and only have the methods contain the throws clause.

[JosAH]

Methods can throw Exceptions, classes can't and the 'throws' keyword in a class definition doesn't make sense so the compiler wants a left curly bracket where it saw the 'throws' keyword.

kind regards,

Jos