Exception.StackTrace Property
Updated: September 2009
Gets a string representation of the frames on the call stack at the time the current exception was thrown.
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
'Declaration Public Overridable ReadOnly Property StackTrace As String 'Usage Dim instance As Exception Dim value As String value = instance.StackTrace
Implements
_Exception.StackTraceThe execution stack keeps track of all the methods that are in execution at a given instant. A trace of the method calls is called a stack trace. The stack trace listing provides a way to follow the call stack to the line number in the method where the exception occurs.
The StackTrace property returns the frames of the call stack that originate at the location where the exception was thrown. You can obtain information about additional frames in the call stack by creating a new instance of the StackTrace class and using its ToString method.
The common language runtime (CLR) updates the stack trace whenever an exception is thrown in application code (by using the throw keyword). If the exception was rethrown in a method that is different than the method where it was originally thrown, the stack trace contains both the location in the method where the exception was originally thrown, and the location in the method where the exception was rethrown. If the exception is thrown, and later rethrown, in the same method, the stack trace only contains the location where the exception was rethrown and does not include the location where the exception was originally thrown.
The StackTrace property may not report as many method calls as expected because of code transformations, such as inlining, that occur during optimization.
Notes to Inheritors:The StackTrace property is overridden in classes that require control over the stack trace content or format.
By default, the stack trace is captured immediately before an exception object is thrown. Use Environment.StackTrace to get stack trace information when no exception is being thrown.
The following code example throws an Exception and then catches it and displays a stack trace using the StackTrace property.
' Example for the Exception.HelpLink, Exception.Source, ' Exception.StackTrace, and Exception.TargetSite properties. Imports System Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic Namespace NDP_UE_VB ' Derive an exception; the constructor sets the HelpLink and ' Source properties. Class LogTableOverflowException Inherits Exception Private Const overflowMessage As String = _ "The log table has overflowed." Public Sub New( auxMessage As String, inner As Exception ) MyBase.New( String.Format( "{0} - {1}", _ overflowMessage, auxMessage ), inner ) Me.HelpLink = "http://msdn.microsoft.com" Me.Source = "Exception_Class_Samples" End Sub ' New End Class ' LogTableOverflowException Class LogTable Public Sub New(numElements As Integer) logArea = New String(numElements) {} elemInUse = 0 End Sub ' New Protected logArea() As String Protected elemInUse As Integer ' The AddRecord method throws a derived exception if ' the array bounds exception is caught. Public Function AddRecord( newRecord As String ) As Integer Try Dim curElement as Integer = elemInUse logArea( elemInUse ) = newRecord elemInUse += 1 Return curElement Catch ex As Exception Throw New LogTableOverflowException( _ String.Format( "Record ""{0}"" was not logged.", _ newRecord ), ex ) End Try End Function ' AddRecord End Class ' LogTable Module OverflowDemo ' Create a log table and force an overflow. Sub Main( ) Dim log As New LogTable( 4 ) Console.WriteLine( "This example of " & vbCrLf & _ " Exception.Message, " & vbCrLf & _ " Exception.HelpLink, " & vbCrLf & _ " Exception.Source, " & vbCrLf & _ " Exception.StackTrace, and " & vbCrLf & _ " Exception.TargetSite " & vbCrLf & _ "generates the following output." ) Try Dim count As Integer = 0 Do log.AddRecord( _ String.Format( "Log record number {0}", count ) ) count += 1 Loop Catch ex As Exception Console.WriteLine( vbCrLf & _ "Message ---" & vbCrLf & ex.Message ) Console.WriteLine( vbCrLf & _ "HelpLink ---" & vbCrLf & ex.HelpLink ) Console.WriteLine( vbCrLf & _ "Source ---" & vbCrLf & ex.Source ) Console.WriteLine( vbCrLf & _ "StackTrace ---" & vbCrLf & ex.StackTrace ) Console.WriteLine( vbCrLf & "TargetSite ---" & _ vbCrLf & ex.TargetSite.ToString( ) ) End Try End Sub ' Main End Module ' OverflowDemo End Namespace ' NDP_UE_VB ' This example of ' Exception.Message, ' Exception.HelpLink, ' Exception.Source, ' Exception.StackTrace, and ' Exception.TargetSite ' generates the following output. ' ' Message --- ' The log table has overflowed. - Record "Log record number 5" was not logged. ' ' HelpLink --- ' http://msdn.microsoft.com ' ' Source --- ' Exception_Class_Samples ' ' StackTrace --- ' at NDP_UE_VB.LogTable.AddRecord(String newRecord) ' at NDP_UE_VB.OverflowDemo.Main() ' ' TargetSite --- ' Int32 AddRecord(System.String)
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The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.