How to print an exception in Python?

Python 3: logging

Instead of using the basic print() function, the more flexible logging module can be used to log the exception. The logging module offers a lot extra functionality, for example, logging messages...

• into a given log file, or
• with timestamps and additional information about where the logging happened.

For more information check out the official documentation.

---

Usage

Logging an exception can be done with the module-level function logging.exception() like so:

import logging

try:
    1/0
except BaseException:
    logging.exception("An exception was thrown!")

Output

ERROR:root:An exception was thrown!
Traceback (most recent call last):
File ".../Desktop/test.py", line 4, in <module>
    1/0
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero 

Notes

• the function logging.exception() should only be called from an exception handler

• the logging module should not be used inside a logging handler to avoid a RecursionError (thanks @PrakharPandey)

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Alternative log-levels

It's also possible to log the exception with another log-level by using the keyword argument exc_info=True like so:

logging.debug("An exception was thrown!", exc_info=True)
logging.info("An exception was thrown!", exc_info=True)
logging.warning("An exception was thrown!", exc_info=True)

For Python 2.6 and later and Python 3.x:

except Exception as e: print(e)

For Python 2.5 and earlier, use:

except Exception,e: print str(e)

In Python 2.6 or greater it's a bit cleaner:

except Exception as e: print(e)

In older versions it's still quite readable:

except Exception, e: print e

The traceback module provides methods for formatting and printing exceptions and their tracebacks, e.g. this would print exception like the default handler does:

import traceback

try:
    1/0
except Exception:
    traceback.print_exc()

Output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\scripts\divide_by_zero.py", line 4, in <module>
    1/0
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero