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Asked: 2026-05-31T22:00:58+00:00

I use sl4j / logback as a logging framework. I am unsure about the

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I use sl4j / logback as a logging framework. I am unsure about the right way to log errors. Namely, assuming e is an Exception I want to log, I always hesitate between:

  1. logger.error("Something bad happened: {}\nError: {}", someInfo, e.getMessage());

    I understand this is not good practice because the stack trace is lost – not great to understand what happened.

  2. logger.error("Something bad happened: {}\nError: {}", someInfo, e.getMessage(), e);

    Using both e.getMessage() and e seems redundant, although I don’t know if it is possible that e.getMessage() might contain extra information that would not be seen if I used:

  3. logger.error("Something bad happened: {}", someInfo, e);

    which is the syntax I generally use – but I want to make sure I am not missing anything.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I usually use number two, although I NEVER break one line of log into 2 lines (\n), although when printing the stack trace, it won’t matter much (in all other cases, it creates too much visual entropy when your logs become really huge).

    Why do I use number 2?

    I want to see the message right away, on the first line, since it’s the first thing that tells me what happened. Some might be expected and I can safely skip them, and some might not be.

    In case I need to examine exactly what happened, I take a better look at the stack trace.

    I reckon number 3 is also fine, since you’ll get the information you need anyway.
    NEVER use option 1.

    By the way, and just a particular opinion, saying that something bad happened on a ERROR line is a bit redundant 😉

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