Gundo

I really disagree with that. There are all sorts of reasons why exceptions can occur, and it's perfectly fine to use a try/catch to handle them--that's what try/catch is for! OP, you use 'throws' when you want the calling function to do the try/catch. There is still a try/catch somewhere, it's just a matter of where. I know that isn't very specific advice, but without looking at the specific situation, I cannot be more specific.