The easiest way to eliminate a checked exception is to return an optional of the desired result type (Item 55). Instead of throwing a checked exception, the method simply returns an empty optional. The disadvantage of this technique is that the method can’t return any additional information detailing its inability to perform the desired computation. Exceptions, by contrast, have descriptive types, and can export methods to provide additional information (Item 70).
A method can also easily throw several types of checked exceptions representing different types of failures. An optional cannot help the caller understand what kind of failure occurred.
