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up vote 8 down vote favorite

Okey, we all know the normal way to throw a IllegalArgumentException in Java:

throw new IllegalArgumentException(); // 37 characters

But there must be a shorter (as in less characters) ways to do so. How can we produce a java.lang.IllegalArgumentException with even less code?

  • The code fragment has to compile and run in java 7.
  • No imports/external packages (e.g. not using java.util.Arrays.toString() )
    • only exception: java.lang because it is automatically imported.
  • You can add own methods/classes.
  • It must throw a java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
    • Edit: the error output (stacktrace) must name it java.lang.IllegalArgumentException, so no subclasses of it.

To have a base to start from:

class Titled {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException();
    }
}
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5 Answers 5

up vote 15 down vote

These were all found by grepping the source code in the package java.lang.

All of them result in a "pure" IllegalArgumentException (i.e. not a subclass of it).

The ones marked * only work if you add " throws Exception" (18 characters) to your main declaration, as they throw a checked exception of some kind.

12 (30?) characters*

"".wait(-1);

This will result in:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: timeout value is negative

22 (40?) characters*

new Thread().join(-1);

22 characters

Character.toChars(-1);

30 characters

Character.UnicodeBlock.of(-1);
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No, it will not compile because it can throw a InterruptedException. –  luckydonald yesterday
    
The compiler will error: unreported exception InterruptedException; must be caught or declared to be thrown –  luckydonald yesterday
    
@luckydonald Hm, it does? I tested it on Ideone and it seemed to work. –  Doorknob♦ yesterday
    
Whoops, Ideone automatically adds throws Exception to the main method. I've added a note in my post. –  Doorknob♦ yesterday
    
Ideone tends to automatically add throws java.lang.Exception which will allow the InterruptedException to pass the compiler. (Also Ideone imports java.util.* and java.io.*) –  luckydonald yesterday
up vote 13 down vote

Here's a nice short way to do it, in 17 13 chars:

new Long("");

It throws a NumberFormatException, which is an IllegalArgumentException. This and this verify it.

Equivalently, one could do

new Byte("");
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Sorry, clearified what I am looking for: I am looking a for 'clean' IllegalArgumentException. It should name it so. –  luckydonald yesterday
    
@luckydonald what do you mean by "naming"? The type given in the stacktrace? If so, would an exception-with-cause be acceptable if the IllegalArgumentException was passed internally as the cause to another exception? –  hexafraction 12 hours ago
    
The purpose is to replace the normal throw new IAE(). The code, when executed in a static (main) method has to fail Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException at Untitled.main(Titled.java:4). Were it fails (line, file, stacktrace) doesn't matter. –  luckydonald 11 hours ago
up vote 5 down vote

22 characters:

Character.toChars(-1);

Running example
Javadoc: java.lang.Character.toChars(int)

Some nice looking variants:

Character.toChars(~4); // 22 characters, number can be any non-negative (and -0)

Character.toChars(1<<7); // 24 characters

~i is the same as -1 * (i+1) because it inverts the bits. So we will get a illegal parameter, because it is smaller then 0.
1<<7 will create a too high number by shifting the 1 seven times. (same as multiply it 7 times with 2). The last accepted Value seems to be 1114111, 1114112 will fail. Note: this might change depending on your environment, and could be not always reliable.

See the Oracle Docs "Bitwise and Bit Shift Operators" and "Primitive Data Types"

28 characters:

And if you don't like using the character class in a character count competition*:

Enum.valueOf(Enum.class,""); // 28 characters

*) Just to make this pun.

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Doesn't need to be any positive; you can do any non-negative (ie ~0 works too) –  Quincunx 9 hours ago
    
I thought about 0 as a positive because it has no minus. But your right, and even Character.toChars(~-0); works. –  luckydonald 7 hours ago
1  
~0 is -1. Not sure what ~-0 does for you, besides requiring an additional character. –  alex.forencich 4 hours ago
    
It looks funnier xD –  luckydonald 2 hours ago
up vote 2 down vote

25 Characters

Creates a vector with an invalid (negative) length:

new java.util.Vector(-1);

Displays:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal Capacity: -1
    at java.util.Vector.<init>(Vector.java:129)
    at java.util.Vector.<init>(Vector.java:144)
    at Titled.main(Titled.java:3)
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up vote 1 down vote

Here's 24 characters:

System.out.printf("%z");

This will throw an IllegalFormatException, which is an IllegalArgumentException.

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