What is the purpose of global exception handling in Spring Boot?

The purpose of global exception handling in Spring Boot is to catch exceptions in the application and provide a unified way of handling them, preventing the direct exposure of exception information to users or the crashing of the application. Global exception handling can achieve the following functionalities:

1. Centralized exception handling: handle all exceptions from the application in one place to avoid try-catch blocks scattered throughout the code.
2. Provide friendly error messages: encapsulate exception information in a unified format and return it to the client for easy handling or display.
3. Avoid leaking abnormal information: By implementing global exception handling, sensitive information can be shielded and only user-friendly error messages are returned.
4. Record abnormal logs: You can record the exception information in the global exception handling to facilitate error analysis and troubleshooting in the future.
5. Consolidate handling of error status codes: By returning corresponding HTTP status codes based on different types of exceptions, it makes it easier for clients to identify and manage them.

Utilizing Spring Boot’s global exception handling can enhance the stability and maintainability of an application, reducing the instances of system crashes or poor user experiences caused by exceptions.