What should be done in the case of a Java invalid input exception?

Question

Should you throw an exception if a method's input values are out of range? eg

//no imaginary numbers

public int MySquareRoot(int x)
{
    if (x<0>    {
    throw new ArgumentOutOfBoundsException("Must be a non-negative integer"); 
    }
    //our implementation here 
}

Now this method should never be called with a non-negative number, but hey programmers make mistakes. Is throwing exceptions here the right thing to do?

Larry Huffer · Accepted Answer

Regarding the java invalid input exception -

Yes, I believe you should throw an exception, to help your fellow programmers notice the error at compile-time, by also throwing ArgumentOutOfBoundsException in your method declaration.

That is, unless you use imaginary numbers in your project, where -1 is a perfectly valid argument for your square root method.

What should be done in the case of a Java invalid input exception?

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