How is exception handling implemented in Java?

Question

How is exception handling implemented in higher-level programming languages (like Java)? By this, I don't mean how to use exceptions within a language; I mean how the compiler generates code (assembly, or some intermediate, like Java byte code) that we recognize as exception-handling, because in the end, the computer can execute only instructions; Everything of a higher-level must be comprised of those instructions.

In C, before exceptions existed, you would return an error code, but if a function already returns something, then what? Perhaps return a structure of both the error code and the real result?

Answer 1

The compiler outputs an athrow instruction (JVM Specification) at the throw site, and an Exceptions attribute (#4.7.5) in the code of the method that shows where all the various catch clauses are, what range of instructions they cover, and what exception types they catch.