[FIXED] Which is good throw an Exception or return custom object in Spring Boot Controller?

Issue

I create an application in Spring Boot. And I want to know which one is good for following situation. I have a rest endpoint, and user send an id as a path variable, then I want to check that id is null or not, if it is null, Which choice is good for handling this sitatution?

Choice 1

if(id == null || id < 0) {
   throw new BadRequestException("Id cannot be null"); 
}

Create a new Exception called BadRequestException, then handle it on the General Exception Handler Controller

or

Choice 2

Return a custom object contains (status, message, details ...)

Here is the whole method

@GetMapping("/user/{id}")
public UserResponseVM getIndividualUser(@PathVariable("id") Long id) {
    if(id == null || id < 0) {
        throw new BadRequestException("Id cannot be null"); 
    }

    // I got stuck in here therefore method isn't completed

    return null;
}

Solution

Definitely option 1, except that you don't have to handle it in the global exception handler if you annotate the exception class with ResponseStatus in the following way:

@ResponseStatus(code = HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST)
class BadRequestException extends RuntimeException {}

Answered By - birca123
Answer Checked By - Candace Johnson (JavaFixing Volunteer)