I was getting tired of remembering to have to log my exceptions and I wanted something to do it for me. I remembered something about generics and exceptions. This is what I came up with:

/**
 * <p>A convenience method for 
 * {@link org.apache.log4j.Logger#error(java.lang.Object, java.lang.Exception) logging}
 * and throwing the specified {@link java.lang.Exception}.</p>
 *
 * <p>Example usage:</p>
 * 
 * <pre>
     private void someMethod()
         throws SomeException
     {
         ...
         LogException.logThrow(log, new SomeException("This will be logged and thrown."));
         ...
     }
 * <pre>
 * 
 * @param  log the <code>Logger</code> to which the exception is logged.
 * @param  exception the <code>Exception</code> to be logged and <code>throw</code>n
 * @throws E the specified exception
 */
public static <E extends Exception> void logThrow(final Logger log, 
                                                  final E exception)
    throws E
{
    log.error(exception, exception);
    throw exception;
}

The only obvious problem with this technique is that the compiler doesn't know the method never returns normally. So in a case such as:

public int returnInt()
    throws SomeException
{
    final int value;
    try
    {
        value = ....
    } catch(final OtherException e)
    {
        LogException.logThrow(log, e);
    }
    return value;
}

the compiler will complain that value may not have been initialized. Oh well. I can dream can't I?