PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference

Reraising an Exception

Sometimes, you want to reraise an exception, that is, handle it locally, then pass it to an enclosing block. For example, you might want to roll back a transaction in the current block, then log the error in an enclosing block.

To reraise an exception, simply place a RAISE statement in the local handler, as shown in the following example:

DECLARE
   out_of_balance  EXCEPTION;
BEGIN
   ...
   BEGIN  ---------- sub-block begins
      ...
      IF ... THEN
         RAISE out_of_balance;  -- raise the exception
      END IF;

   EXCEPTION
      WHEN out_of_balance THEN
         -- handle the error
         RAISE;  -- reraise the current exception
      ...
   END;  ------------ sub-block ends
EXCEPTION
   WHEN out_of_balance THEN
      -- handle the error differently
   ...
END;

Omitting the exception name in a RAISE statement--allowed only in an exception handler--reraises the current exception.