Get exception description and stack trace which caused an exception, all as a string

Question

I\'ve seen a lot of posts about stack trace and exceptions in Python. But haven\'t found what I need.

I have a chunk of Python 2.7 code that may raise an exception.

Answer 1

If your goal is to make the exception and stacktrace message look exactly like when python throws an error, the following works in both python 2+3:

import sys, traceback


def format_stacktrace():
    parts = ["Traceback (most recent call last):\n"]
    parts.extend(traceback.format_stack(limit=25)[:-2])
    parts.extend(traceback.format_exception(*sys.exc_info())[1:])
    return "".join(parts)

# EXAMPLE BELOW...

def a():
    b()


def b():
    c()


def c():
    d()


def d():
    assert False, "Noooh don't do it."


print("THIS IS THE FORMATTED STRING")
print("============================\n")

try:
    a()
except:
    stacktrace = format_stacktrace()
    print(stacktrace)

print("THIS IS HOW PYTHON DOES IT")
print("==========================\n")
a()

It works by removing the last format_stacktrace() call from the stack and joining the rest. When run, the example above gives the following output:

THIS IS THE FORMATTED STRING
============================

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 31, in 
    a()
  File "test.py", line 12, in a
    b()
  File "test.py", line 16, in b
    c()
  File "test.py", line 20, in c
    d()
  File "test.py", line 24, in d
    assert False, "Noooh don't do it."
AssertionError: Noooh don't do it.

THIS IS HOW PYTHON DOES IT
==========================

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 38, in 
    a()
  File "test.py", line 12, in a
    b()
  File "test.py", line 16, in b
    c()
  File "test.py", line 20, in c
    d()
  File "test.py", line 24, in d
    assert False, "Noooh don't do it."
AssertionError: Noooh don't do it.