What is the role of the finally block in exception handling in programming?

The finally block in Java is used to execute code that must run regardless of whether an exception was thrown or not. It is useful for releasing resources, closing streams, database connections, and other cleanup operations.

Example:

try {
    // code that might throw an exception
} catch (Exception e) {
    // exception handling
} finally {
    // code that always executes
    // for example, closing a file or connection
}