Preconditions

By convention, preconditions on public methods are enforced by explicit checks inside methods resulting in particular, specified exceptions. For example:

 /**
     * Sets the refresh rate.
     *
     * @param  rate refresh rate, in frames per second.
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if rate <= 0 or
     *          rate > MAX_REFRESH_RATE.
     */
     public void setRefreshRate(int rate) {
         // Enforce specified precondition in public method
         if (rate <= 0 || rate > MAX_REFRESH_RATE)
             throw new IllegalArgumentException("Illegal rate: " + rate);

         setRefreshInterval(1000/rate);
     }

This convention is unaffected by the addition of the assert construct. An assert is inappropriate for such preconditions, as the enclosing method guarantees that it will enforce the argument checks, whether or not assertions are enabled. Further, the assert construct does not throw an exception of the specified type.

If, however, there is a precondition on a nonpublic method and the author of a class believes the precondition to hold no matter what a client does with the class, then an assertion is entirely appropriate. For example:

  /**
    * Sets the refresh interval (must correspond to a legal frame rate).
    *
    * @param  interval refresh interval in milliseconds.
    */
    private void setRefreshInterval(int interval) {
        // Confirm adherence to precondition in nonpublic method
        assert interval > 0 && interval <= 1000/MAX_REFRESH_RATE;

        ... // Set the refresh interval
    }

Note, the above assertion will fail if MAX_REFRESH_RATE is greater than 1000 and the user selects a refresh rate greater than 1000. This would, in fact, indicate a bug in the library!