Question

Is it possible to get variable values included in a stack trace? I have just started using bugsense which emails the stacktrace to me and I wonder if there is some way in my code to put the variable values into the stacktrace output

Answer 1

Not by default, you have to do it by yourself:

The stack trace will only tell you about the involved line of code (where the Exception is thrown) and the execution stack.

But nothing prevents you from catching the Exception and to include some debug information in the message:

try {
   ...the code...
}
catch (Throwable t) {
   // Here, we catch any Throwable (Exception but also Error such as OutOfMemory 
   // or NoClassDefFound), which is *absolutely not suitable* for 
   // anything else than debugging.
   // You can (should, actually) make this catch statement more specific 
   // depending of the Exception or Error you are facing

   // Dump your variables here:
   final String message = "myVar=" + myVar; 

   // The statement below rethrows the original Throwable and adds your
   // own message to it
   throw new RuntimeException(message, t); 
}

Or to put a breakpoint in the catch { } statement to inspect the state of your application at that stage, but as I understood it may not be applicable in the case you are describing.

(By the way, I suggest you add the tag “Java” to your question. This way it will also be visible by the Java community of StackOverflow)