How do you implement a re-try-catch?

Try-catch is meant to help in the exception handling. This means somehow that it will help our system to be more robust: try to recover from an unexpected event.

We suspect something might happen when executing and instruction (sending a message), so it gets enclosed in the try. If that something nearly unexpected happens, we can do something: we write the catch. I don't think we called to just log the exception. I thing the catch block is meant to give us the opportunity of recovering from the error.

Now, let's say we recover from the error because we could fix what was wrong. It could be super nice to do a re-try:

try{ some_instruction(); }
catch (NearlyUnexpectedException e){
   fix_the_problem();
   retry;
}

This would quickly fall in the eternal loop, but let's say that the fix_the_problem returns true, then we retry. Given that there is no such thing in Java, how would YOU solve this problem? What would be your best design code for solving this?

This is like a philosophical question, given that I already know what I'm asking for is not directly supported by Java.

You need to enclose your try-catch inside a while loop like this: -

int count = 0;
int maxTries = 3;
while(true) {
    try {
        // Some Code
        // break out of loop, or return, on success
    } catch (SomeException e) {
        // handle exception
        if (++count == maxTries) throw e;
    }
}

I have taken count and maxTries to avoid running into an infinite loop, in case the exception keeps on occurring in your try block.

Obligatory "enterprisy" solution:

public abstract class Operation {
    abstract public void doIt();
    public void handleException(Exception cause) {
        //default impl: do nothing, log the exception, etc.
    }
}

public class OperationHelper {
    public static void doWithRetry(int maxAttempts, Operation operation) {
        for (int count = 0; count < maxAttempts; count++) {
            try {
                operation.doIt();
                count = maxAttempts; //don't retry
            } catch (Exception e) {
                operation.handleException(e);
            }
        }
    }
}

And to call:

OperationHelper.doWithRetry(5, new Operation() {
    @Override public void doIt() {
        //do some stuff
    }
    @Override public void handleException(Exception cause) {
        //recover from the Exception
    }
});

As usual, the best design depends on the particular circumstances. Usually though, I write something like:

for (int retries = 0;; retries++) {
    try {
        return doSomething();
    } catch (SomeException e) {
        if (retries < 6) {
            continue;
        } else {
            throw e;
        }
    }
}

Your exact scenario handled via Failsafe:

RetryPolicy retryPolicy = new RetryPolicy()
  .retryOn(NearlyUnexpectedException.class);

Failsafe.with(retryPolicy)
  .onRetry((r, f) -> fix_the_problem())
  .run(() -> some_instruction());

Pretty simple.

How do you implement a re-try-catch?

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