Is it okay to handle Runtime exceptions?

Question

It's generally a good practice to not handle runtime exceptions.

I have this scenario :

  /**boolean returns false if the method execution fails,
  so that an error can be shown to user*/ 
boolean saveData()
 {
    try
    {
         //Some database calls that throw only Runtime exceptions
     }
     catch(Exception e)
     {
         //Log the exception and return false
         return false;
     }
     return true;

 }

So from the Servlet calling it will get a boolean value. If it's false, we show a message 'Save Not sucessful'. Is this okay or is there a better way of doing it ?

Answer 1

Is it okay to handle Runtime exceptions?

As long as you can do something intelligent at that point, yes. This 'never catch run-time exceptions' is pure nonsense. You'll probably want to log them and do other things, as well.