Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception

# Table of Contents

# Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception

To get the type, file and line number of an exception in Python:

Use the sys.exc_info() method to get the exception type, object and traceback.
The exception filename and line number can be accessed on the traceback object.

main.py

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import sys
import os

try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    e_type, e_object, e_traceback = sys.exc_info()

    e_filename = os.path.split(
        e_traceback.tb_frame.f_code.co_filename
    )[1]

    e_message = str(e)

    e_line_number = e_traceback.tb_lineno

    print(f'exception type: {e_type}')

    print(f'exception filename: {e_filename}')

    print(f'exception line number: {e_line_number}')

    print(f'exception message: {e_message}')

The code for this article is available on GitHub

Running the code sample produces the following output.

shell

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exception type: <class 'ValueError'>
exception filename: main.py
exception line number: 5
exception message: invalid value

get type file and line number of exception in python

The sys.exc_info() method returns the old-style representation of the handled exception.

main.py

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import sys

try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    # (<class 'ValueError'>, ValueError('invalid value'), <traceback object at 0x7fd0f0b427c0>)
    print(sys.exc_info())

The tuple contains the exception type, the exception object and the exception traceback.

The exception type is a subclass of BaseException.

The second element of the tuple is the exception object itself (same as e).

The third element is a traceback object which contains information about at what point the exception occurred.

You have to make sure to use the sys.exc_info() method in an except block.

If the method is used when no exception is being handled on the stack, it returns three None values.

As shown in the code sample, you can use the traceback object to get:

the filename - the name of the file in which the exception occurred.
the line number - on which line in the file the exception was last raised.

main.py

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import sys
import os

try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    e_type, e_object, e_traceback = sys.exc_info()

    e_filename = os.path.split(
        e_traceback.tb_frame.f_code.co_filename
    )[1]

    e_message = str(e)

    e_line_number = e_traceback.tb_lineno

    print(f'exception type: {e_type}')

    print(f'exception filename: {e_filename}')

    print(f'exception line number: {e_line_number}')

    print(f'exception message: {e_message}')

The code for this article is available on GitHub

Running the code sample produces the following output.

shell

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exception type: <class 'ValueError'>
exception filename: main.py
exception line number: 5
exception message: invalid value

get type file and line number of exception in python

# Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception using `traceback.format_exc()`

You can also use the traceback.format_exc() method to get the type, file and line number of an exception.

main.py

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import traceback

try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    print(traceback.format_exc())

The code for this article is available on GitHub

Running the code sample produces the following output.

shell

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Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/main.py", line 4, in <module>
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
ValueError: invalid value

get type file and line number of exception using format exc

As shown in the output, the name of the file (the absolute path) is shown on the second line.

shell

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File "/home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/main.py", line 4, in <module>

The message also contains the line on which the exception was raised in said file.

The next line shows the specified line.

shell

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raise ValueError('invalid value')

The last line shows the type of the error and the message.

shell

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ValueError: invalid value

You can achieve the same result by using the traceback.print_exc method.

main.py

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import traceback

try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    traceback.print_exc()

Running the code sample produces the following output.

shell

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Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/main.py", line 4, in <module>
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
ValueError: invalid value

using traceback print exc method instead

# Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception without any imports

You can also get the type, file and line number of an exception without any imports.

Here is an example that accesses the attributes directly on the exception object.

main.py

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try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    e_type = type(e).__name__
    e_file = e.__traceback__.tb_frame.f_code.co_filename
    e_line = e.__traceback__.tb_lineno

    e_message = str(e)

    print(f'exception type: {e_type}')

    print(f'exception filename: {e_file}')

    print(f'exception line number: {e_line}')

    print(f'exception message: {e_message}')

The code for this article is available on GitHub

Running the code sample produces the following output.

shell

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exception type: ValueError
exception filename: /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/main.py
exception line number: 2
exception message: invalid value

get type file and line number of exception without imports

As shown in the code sample, you can access the __name__ attribute to get the exception type directly in the except block.

main.py

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try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    # ValueError
    e_type = type(e).__name__

Getting the absolute path to the file in which the exception occurred can also be done by using the attributes on the exception object.

main.py

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try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    # exception filename: /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/main.py
    e_file = e.__traceback__.tb_frame.f_code.co_filename

The same is the case for retrieving the line on which the exception occurred.

main.py

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try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    # 👇️ 2
    e_line = e.__traceback__.tb_lineno

If you want to convert the exception object to a string to get the error message, use the str class.

main.py

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try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    # invalid value
    e_message = str(e)

# Getting the Type, File and Line Number of multiple exceptions

If you need to get the type, file and line number of multiple (all) exceptions that have occurred, use a while loop.

main.py

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try:
    raise ValueError('invalid value')
except ValueError as e:
    all_exceptions = []

    tback = e.__traceback__

    while tback is not None:
        e_type = type(e).__name__
        e_file = tback.tb_frame.f_code.co_filename
        e_line = tback.tb_lineno
        e_message = str(e)

        all_exceptions.append({
            'e_type': e_type,
            'e_file': e_file,
            'e_line': e_line,
            'e_message': e_message,
        })

        tback = tback.tb_next

    print(all_exceptions)

The code for this article is available on GitHub

Running the code sample produces the following output.

shell

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[{'e_type': 'ValueError', 'e_file': '/home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/main.py', 'e_line': 2, 'e_message': 'invalid value'}]

get type file line number of multiple exceptions

We used a while loop to iterate for as long as the tback variable doesn't store a None value.

On each iteration, we append a dictionary containing the exception details to the list.

Once the exception details are added to the list of dictionaries, we reassign the tback variable to the next exception in the stack.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception

# Table of Contents

# Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception

# Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception using traceback.format_exc()

# Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception without any imports

# Getting the Type, File and Line Number of multiple exceptions

# Additional Resources

Borislav Hadzhiev

# Python: Get the Type, File and Line Number of Exception using `traceback.format_exc()`