Assertions

• An assertion is a statement containing a boolean expression that the programmer believes will be true every time the statement is executed when the program runs.

• For example,

  int i = in.read();
assert i >= -1 && i <= 256;

• If an assertion fails at runtime an AssertionError is thrown.

• Typically, assertion-checking is enabled during program development and testing, and disabled for deployment. Therefore assertions should not have side effects.

• Assertions should not be used to check arguments to public methods; (instead regular logic should be used and an exception thrown if there's a problem) but of course this is exactly what programmers will use them for.

• Introduces a number of backwards compatibility issues because of the new keyword and ClassLoader changes required to support assertions.

• Possibly included in Java 1.4; RFE "fixed in a non-public release"

• http://java.sun.com/aboutJava/communityprocess/review/jsr041/publicDraft.html