I have a regular C# code. I have no exceptions. I want to programmatically log the current stack trace for debugging purpose. Example:
public void executeMethod()
{
logStackTrace();
method();
}
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6 Answers
Have a look at the System.Diagnostics namespace. Lots of goodies in there!
System.Diagnostics.StackTrace t = new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace();
This is really good to have a poke around in to learn what's going on under the hood.
I'd recommend that you have a look into logging solutions (Such as NLog, log4net or the Microsoft patterns and practices Enterprise Library) which may achieve your purposes and then some.
4 Comments
Jonathan Dickinson
Keep in mind that
StackTrace is dog slow - so use it sparingly.
Sasino
I think your answer should mention that you can use
t.ToString() to get a string representation of the stack trace, which is probably what the OP wanted.
David Raab
If someone want File Name and File line numbers. You must at least call
new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace(true).
Vočko
You have to put the last two comments together if you want to get some useful information
new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace(true) and then t.ToString() prints out useful stack trace. Without the true the printout will look like this Stack trace: StackTrace { FrameCount: 36 }. Thank you guys!An alternative to System.Diagnostics.StackTrace is to use System.Environment.StackTrace which returns a string-representation of the stacktrace.
Another useful option is to use the $CALLER and $CALLSTACK debugging variables in Visual Studio since this can be enabled run-time without rebuilding the application.
7 Comments
Daniel
Environment.StackTrace just new's up an instance of StackTrace.
larsmoa
@Daniel: Yes, but
System.Environment.StackTrace might be a more convenient way of accessing that information.larsmoa
@AndreiRinea: Actually, I belive you can access line numbers using
System.Diagnostics.StackTrace - see msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/…
Rory
Isn't it annoying that
Environment.StackTrace always starts out with at System.Environment.GetStackTrace(Exception e, Boolean needFileInfo) at System.Environment.get_StackTrace()? That's not part of the current stack trace as at the point that someone's looking for it.
Walter Verhoeven
@Rory, have a look at the constructor StackTrace(int skipFrames, bool fNeedFileInfo), you can skip the starting frame. ipen the method in ILSpy and you can see what it does
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There are two ways to do this. The System.Diagnostics.StackTrace() will give you a stack trace for the current thread. If you have a reference to a Thread instance, you can get the stack trace for that via the overloaded version of StackTrace().
You may also want to check out Stack Overflow question How to get non-current thread's stacktrace?.
1 Comment
David
Error CS1955 Non-invocable member 'StackTrace' cannot be used like a method.
You can also do this in the Visual Studio debugger without modifying the code.
- Create a breakpoint where you want to see the stack trace.
- Right-click the breakpoint and select "Actions..." in VS2015. In VS2010, select "When Hit...", then enable "Print a message".
- Make sure "Continue execution" is selected.
- Type in some text you would like to print out.
- Add $CALLSTACK wherever you want to see the stack trace.
- Run the program in the debugger.
Of course, this doesn't help if you're running the code on a different machine, but it can be quite handy to be able to spit out a stack trace automatically without affecting release code or without even needing to restart the program.
2 Comments
khargoosh
If you want to see a stack trace and you're already in the VS debugger at a breakpoint, just go to Debug->Windows->Call Stack.
Hannah Schultz
Yes, but if you do it this way, the program doesn't have to stop for you to see the stack trace.
Console.WriteLine(
new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace().ToString()
);
The output will be similar to:
at YourNamespace.Program.executeMethod(String msg)
at YourNamespace.Program.Main(String[] args)
Replace Console.WriteLine with your Log method. Actually, there is
no need for .ToString() for the Console.WriteLine case as it accepts
object. But you may need that for your Log(string msg) method.
Comments
This worked for me:
Debug.WriteLine(Environment.StackTrace);
