trace : Java Glossary

Throwable t = new Throwable();
StackTraceElement[] es = t.getStackTrace();
for ( int i=0; i<es.length; i++ )
   {
   StackTraceElement e = es[i];
   System.out.println( " in class:" + e.getClassName()
                       + " in source file:" + e.getFileName()
                       + " in method:" + e.getMethodName()
                       + " at line:" + e.getLineNumber()
                       + " " + ( e.isNativeMethod() ? "native" : "" ) );
   }

imAt() in the following code sample will print out at com.mindprod.mypackage.Myclass.doSomething line 34. You could use similar code to return the name of the current class or method. Unfortunately, support for the methods this relies on is not guaranteed in all implementations.

In older Javas you will have to make do with new Throwable().printStackTrace(), or you can catch an exception and print with e.printStackTrace(). Thread.dumpstack() is a convenience method to do just that.

To get a stack dump on an exception use:

try
   {
   ...
   }
// printing a stack trace on an exception
catch ( Exception e )
   {
   e.printStackTrace();
   // or
   e.printStackTrace( System.err );
   }

Calling Class

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