What is the difference between NoClassDefFoundError and ClassNotFoundException ?

Question

I want to know the difference between the specified error and the exception.

What is the reason for getting each of them and any thought process on how to deal with such errors?

While working on a project. If we are modifying the existing code to include the new jar file I get to face these exceptions. Sometimes they will come in client side or server side for a java app distributed through webstart.

Possible reasons I have come across- 1)packages not included in build.xml for the client side of code. 2)Runtime classpath missing for the new jars what we are using. 3)version conflicts with previous jar

But as of now I am dealing with hit and trial method to get things working.

Need more clarity and understanding regarding this.

Answer 1

NoClassDefFoundError is a linkage error basically. It occurs when you try and instantiate an object (statically with "new") and it's not found when it was during compilation.

ClassNotFoundException is more general and is a runtime exception when you try to use a class that doesn't exist. For example, you have a parameter in a function accepts an interface and someone passes in a class that implements that interface but you don't have access to the class. It also covers case of dynamic class loading, such as using loadClass() or Class.forName().

Answer 2

The difference from the Java API Specifications is as follows.

For ClassNotFoundException:

Thrown when an application tries to load in a class through its string name using:

• The forName method in class Class.
• The findSystemClass method in class ClassLoader.
• The loadClass method in class ClassLoader.

but no definition for the class with the specified name could be found.

For NoClassDefFoundError:

Thrown if the Java Virtual Machine or a ClassLoader instance tries to load in the definition of a class (as part of a normal method call or as part of creating a new instance using the new expression) and no definition of the class could be found.

The searched-for class definition existed when the currently executing class was compiled, but the definition can no longer be found.

So, it appears that the NoClassDefFoundError occurs when the source was successfully compiled, but at runtime, the required class files were not found. This may be something that can happen in the distribution or production of JAR files, where not all the required class files were included.

As for ClassNotFoundException, it appears that it may stem from trying to make reflective calls to classes at runtime, but the classes the program is trying to call is does not exist.

The difference between the two is that one is an Error and the other is an Exception. With NoClassDefFoundError is an Error and it arises from the Java Virtual Machine having problems finding a class it expected to find. A program that was expected to work at compile-time can't run because of class files not being found, or is not the same as was produced or encountered at compile-time. This is a pretty critical error, as the program cannot be initiated by the JVM.

On the other hand, the ClassNotFoundException is an Exception, so it is somewhat expected, and is something that is recoverable. Using reflection is can be error-prone (as there is some expectations that things may not go as expected. There is no compile-time check to see that all the required classes exist, so any problems with finding the desired classes will appear at runtime.

Answer 3

ClassNotFoundException is thrown when there is attempt to load the class by referencing it via a String. For example the parameter to in Class.forName() is a String, and this raises the potential of invalid binary names being passed to the classloader.

The ClassNotFoundException is thrown when a potentially invalid binary name is encountered; for instance, if the class name has the '/' character, you are bound to get a ClassNotFoundException. It is also thrown when the directly referenced class is not available on the classpath.

On the other hand, NoClassDefFoundError is thrown

• when the actual physical representation of the class - the .class file is unavailable,
• or the class been loaded already in a different classloader (usually a parent classloader would have loaded the class and hence the class cannot be loaded again),
• or if an incompatible class definition has been found - the name in the class file does not match the requested name,
• or (most importantly) if a dependent class cannot be located and loaded. In this case, the directly referenced class might have been located and loaded, but the dependent class is not available or cannot be loaded. This is a scenario where the directly referenced class can be loaded via a Class.forName or equivalent methods. This indicates a failure in linkage.

In short, a NoClassDefFoundError is usually thrown on new() statements or method invocations that load a previously absent class (as opposed to the string-based loading of classes for ClassNotFoundException), when the classloader is unable to find or load the class definition(s).

Eventually, it is upto the ClassLoader implementation to throw an instance of ClassNotFoundException when it is unable to load a class. Most custom classloader implementations perform this since they extend the URLClassLoader. Usually classloaders do not explicitly throw a NoClassDefFoundError on any of the method implementations - this exception is usually thrown from the JVM in the HotSpot compiler, and not by the classloader itself.

Answer 4

A ClassNotFoundException is thrown when the reported class is not found by the ClassLoader. This typically means that the class is missing from the CLASSPATH. It could also mean that the class in question is trying to be loaded from another class which was loaded in a parent classloader and hence the class from the child classloader is not visible. This is sometimes the case when working in more complex environments like an App Server (WebSphere is infamous for such classloader issues).

People often tend to confuse java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError with java.lang.ClassNotFoundException however there's an important distinction. For example an exception (an error really since java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError is a subclass of java.lang.Error) like

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/activemq/ActiveMQConnectionFactory does not mean that the ActiveMQConnectionFactory class is not in the CLASSPATH. Infact its quite the opposite. It means that the class ActiveMQConnectionFactory was found by the ClassLoader however when trying to load the class, it ran into an error reading the class definition. This typically happens when the class in question has static blocks or members which use a Class that's not found by the ClassLoader. So to find the culprit, view the source of the class in question (ActiveMQConnectionFactory in this case) and look for code using static blocks or static members. If you don't have access the the source, then simply decompile it using JAD.

On examining the code, say you find a line of code like below, make sure that the class SomeClass in in your CLASSPATH.

private static SomeClass foo = new SomeClass();

Tip : To find out which jar a class belongs to, you can use the web site jarFinder . This allows you to specify a class name using wildcards and it searches for the class in its database of jars. jarhoo allows you to do the same thing but its no longer free to use.

If you would like to locate the which jar a class belongs to in a local path, you can use a utility like jarscan ( http://www.inetfeedback.com/jarscan/ ). You just specify the class you'd like to locate and the root directory path where you'd like it to start searching for the class in jars and zip files.

Answer 5

A NoClassDefFoundError (NCDFE) happens when your code runs "new Y()" and it can't find the Y class.

It may simply be that Y is missing from your class loader like the other comments suggest, but it could be that the Y class isn't signed or has an invalid signature, or that Y is loaded by a different classloader not visible to your code, or even that Y depends on Z which couldn't be loaded for any of the above reasons.

If this happens, then the JVM will remember the result of loading X (NCDFE) and it will simply throw a new NCDFE every time you ask for Y without telling you why:

class a {
  static class b {}
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    System.out.println("First attempt new b():");
    try {new b(); } catch(Throwable t) {t.printStackTrace();}
    System.out.println("\nSecond attempt new b():");
    try {new b(); } catch(Throwable t) {t.printStackTrace();}
  }
}

save this as a.java somewhere

The code simply tries to instantiate a new "b" class twice, other than that, it doesn't have any bugs, and it doesn't do anything.

Compile the code with javac a.java, Then run a by invoking java -cp . a -- it should just print out two lines of text, and it should run fine without errors.

Then delete the "a$b.class" file (or fill it with garbage, or copy a.class over it) to simulate the missing or corrupted class. Here's what happens:

First attempt new b():
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: a$b
    at a.main(a.java:5)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: a$b
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:200)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:307)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:252)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:320)
    ... 1 more

Second attempt new b():
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: a$b
    at a.main(a.java:7)

The first invocation results in a ClassNotFoundException (thrown by the class loader when it can't find the class), which must be wrapped in an unchecked NoClassDefFoundError, since the code in question (new b()) should just work.

The second attempt will of course fail too, but as you can see the wrapped exception is no more, because the ClassLoader seems to remember failed class loaders. You see only the NCDFE with absolutely no clue as to what really happened.

So if you ever see a NCDFE with no root cause, you need to see if you can track back to the very first time the class was loaded to find the cause of the error.

Answer 6

What is the reason for getting each of them and any thought process on how to deal with such errors?

They're closely related. A ClassNotFoundException is thrown when Java went looking for a particular class by name and could not successfully load it. A NoClassDefFoundError is thrown when Java went looking for a class that was linked into some existing code, but couldn't find it for one reason or another (e.g., wrong classpath, wrong version of Java, wrong version of a library) and is thoroughly fatal as it indicates that something has gone Badly Wrong.

If you've got a C background, a CNFE is like a failure to dlopen()/dlsym() and an NCDFE is a problem with the linker; in the second case, the class files concerned should never have been actually compiled in the configuration you're trying to use them.