Difference between Unchecked exception or runtime exception

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As stated by their name, unchecked exceptions are not checked at compile-time which means that the compiler doesn’t require methods to catch or to specify (with a throws) them. Classes belonging to this category are detailed in the section 11.2 Compile-Time Checking of Exceptions of the JLS:

The unchecked exceptions classes are the class RuntimeException and its subclasses, and the class Error and its subclasses. All other exception classes are checked exception classes. The Java API defines a number of exception classes, both checked and unchecked. Additional exception classes, both checked and unchecked, may be declared by programmers. See ยง11.5 for a description of the exception class hierarchy and some of the exception classes defined by the Java API and Java virtual machine.

The following picture illustrates the Exception hierarchy:

alt text

The class Error and its subclasses are exceptions from which ordinary programs are not ordinarily expected to recover and, as explained in 11.5 The Exception Hierarchy:

The class Error is a separate
subclass of Throwable, distinct from
Exception in the class hierarchy, to
allow programs to use the idiom:

} catch (Exception e) {

to catch all exceptions from which
recovery may be possible without
catching errors from which recovery is
typically not possible.

To summarize, RuntimeException are a subset of unchecked exceptions for exceptions from which recovery is possible (but unchecked exception is not a synonym of RuntimeException as many are answering here).

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