Unreachable catch section

Reports catch sections which are never executed, even if allowed by the Java Language Specification.

While unreachable catch sections are normally disallowed by Java compiler and reported as compilation errors, the analysis mandated by the Java language is not complete for some cases. This inspection provides enhanced analysis and reports some unreachable catch sections which are not reported by the compiler. Such sections are redundant and could be safely removed.

Example:

  void method() {
    try { 
      throw new FileNotFoundException(); 
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException e) { 
      
    }
    catch (IOException e) {
      // this catch is allowed by specification
      // but never executed
    }
  }

The quick-fix is provided, which removes the redundant catch section:

  void method() {
    try { 
      throw new FileNotFoundException(); 
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException e) { 
      
    }
  }

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

UnreachableCatch

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Java | Verbose or redundant code constructs

Inspection ID: UnreachableCatch

New in 2025.1

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection UnreachableCatch

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, Qodana for JVM 2025.3,

Last modified: 03 December 2025