In previous releases, the C++ <ahref="../api_reference/CXX/dbdel.html"class="olink">Db::del</a> and
Java <codeclass="classname">Db.delete()</code> methods threw exceptions encapsulating the
<ahref="../programmer_reference/program_errorret.html#program_errorret.DB_KEYEMPTY"class="olink">DB_KEYEMPTY</a> error in some
cases when called on Queue and Recno databases. Unfortunately, this was undocumented
behavior.
</p>
<p>
For consistency with the other Berkeley DB methods that handle
<ahref="../programmer_reference/program_errorret.html#program_errorret.DB_KEYEMPTY"class="olink">DB_KEYEMPTY</a>, this is no longer the case. Applications calling the
<ahref="../api_reference/CXX/dbdel.html"class="olink">Db::del</a> and Java
<codeclass="classname">Db.delete()</code> methods on Queue or Recno databases,
and handling the <ahref="../programmer_reference/program_errorret.html#program_errorret.DB_KEYEMPTY"class="olink">DB_KEYEMPTY</a> exception specially, should be modified
to check for a return value of <ahref="../programmer_reference/program_errorret.html#program_errorret.DB_KEYEMPTY"class="olink">DB_KEYEMPTY</a> instead.