Need more information on Exception getCause and GetMessage

Question

Hi,
I wass developing a module for displaying exceptions in my application.
Depending on the log level, I wanted to display contents in a log.
I wanted to know the what are these useful - getMessage(), getCause() and printstacktrace().
Printstacktrace might not be preferred logging message and not sure what else can be a better log.
Thanks & Regards,
Chandra

Answer 1

Try this program that prints exception in three different ways.
public class ExceptionDemo{
   private static final int STACK_SIZE=5;
   public static void throwException1(int i){
      if(i == 0){
         throw new RuntimeException("Exception from method throwException1");
      throwException1(--i);
   public static void throwException2(int i){
      if(i == 0){
         try{
            throwException1(STACK_SIZE);
         } catch(Exception ex){
            throw new RuntimeException("Exception from method throwException2", ex);
      throwException2(--i);
   private static void printMessages(Throwable ta){
      while(ta != null){
         System.err.println(ta.getMessage());
         ta=ta.getCause();
   private static void printAllComplete(Throwable ta){
      while(ta != null){
         System.err.println(ta.getMessage());
         StackTraceElement[] elements=ta.getStackTrace();
         for(int i=0; i < elements.length; i++){
            System.err.println(elements);
ta=ta.getCause();
public static void main(String argv[]){
try{
throwException2(STACK_SIZE);
} catch(Exception ex){
System.err.println("--------------- Here is general stack trace ------------------");
ex.printStackTrace();
System.err.println("------------------ Here are just messages --------------------");
printMessages(ex);
System.err.println("----------------- Here are complete traces -------------------");
printAllComplete(ex);
You can use either of them.
May help,
Regards,