Exception.Message vs Exception.ToString()

Question

Exception.Message contains only the message (doh) associated with the exception. Example:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object

The Exception.ToString() method will give a much more verbose output, containing the exception type, the message (from before), a stack trace, and all of these things again for nested/inner exceptions. More precisely, the method returns the following:

ToString returns a representation of the current exception that is intended to be understood by humans. Where the exception contains culture-sensitive data, the string representation returned by ToString is required to take into account the current system culture. Although there are no exact requirements for the format of the returned string, it should attempt to reflect the value of the object as perceived by the user.

The default implementation of ToString obtains the name of the class that threw the current exception, the message, the result of calling ToString on the inner exception, and the result of calling Environment.StackTrace. If any of these members is a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic), its value is not included in the returned string.

If there is no error message or if it is an empty string (""), then no error message is returned. The name of the inner exception and the stack trace are returned only if they are not a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic).

In addition to what's already been said, don't use ToString() on the exception object for displaying to the user. Just the Message property should suffice, or a higher level custom message.

In terms of logging purposes, definitely use ToString() on the Exception, not just the Message property, as in most scenarios, you will be left scratching your head where specifically this exception occurred, and what the call stack was. The stacktrace would have told you all that.

Converting the WHOLE Exception To a String

Calling Exception.ToString() gives you more information than just using the Exception.Message property. However, even this still leaves out lots of information, including:

1. The Data collection property found on all exceptions.
2. Any other custom properties added to the exception.

There are times when you want to capture this extra information. The code below handles the above scenarios. It also writes out the properties of the exceptions in a nice order. It's using C# 7 but should be very easy for you to convert to older versions if necessary. See also this related answer.

public static class ExceptionExtensions
{
    public static string ToDetailedString(this Exception exception) =>
        ToDetailedString(exception, ExceptionOptions.Default);

    public static string ToDetailedString(this Exception exception, ExceptionOptions options)
    {
        if (exception == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(exception));
        } 

        var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

        AppendValue(stringBuilder, "Type", exception.GetType().FullName, options);

        foreach (PropertyInfo property in exception
            .GetType()
            .GetProperties()
            .OrderByDescending(x => string.Equals(x.Name, nameof(exception.Message), StringComparison.Ordinal))
            .ThenByDescending(x => string.Equals(x.Name, nameof(exception.Source), StringComparison.Ordinal))
            .ThenBy(x => string.Equals(x.Name, nameof(exception.InnerException), StringComparison.Ordinal))
            .ThenBy(x => string.Equals(x.Name, nameof(AggregateException.InnerExceptions), StringComparison.Ordinal)))
        {
            var value = property.GetValue(exception, null);
            if (value == null && options.OmitNullProperties)
            {
                if (options.OmitNullProperties)
                {
                    continue;
                }
                else
                {
                    value = string.Empty;
                }
            }

            AppendValue(stringBuilder, property.Name, value, options);
        }

        return stringBuilder.ToString().TrimEnd('\r', '\n');
    }

    private static void AppendCollection(
        StringBuilder stringBuilder,
        string propertyName,
        IEnumerable collection,
        ExceptionOptions options)
        {
            stringBuilder.AppendLine($"{options.Indent}{propertyName} =");

            var innerOptions = new ExceptionOptions(options, options.CurrentIndentLevel + 1);

            var i = 0;
            foreach (var item in collection)
            {
                var innerPropertyName = $"[{i}]";

                if (item is Exception)
                {
                    var innerException = (Exception)item;
                    AppendException(
                        stringBuilder,
                        innerPropertyName,
                        innerException,
                        innerOptions);
                }
                else
                {
                    AppendValue(
                        stringBuilder,
                        innerPropertyName,
                        item,
                        innerOptions);
                }

                ++i;
            }
        }

    private static void AppendException(
        StringBuilder stringBuilder,
        string propertyName,
        Exception exception,
        ExceptionOptions options)
    {
        var innerExceptionString = ToDetailedString(
            exception, 
            new ExceptionOptions(options, options.CurrentIndentLevel + 1));

        stringBuilder.AppendLine($"{options.Indent}{propertyName} =");
        stringBuilder.AppendLine(innerExceptionString);
    }

    private static string IndentString(string value, ExceptionOptions options)
    {
        return value.Replace(Environment.NewLine, Environment.NewLine + options.Indent);
    }

    private static void AppendValue(
        StringBuilder stringBuilder,
        string propertyName,
        object value,
        ExceptionOptions options)
    {
        if (value is DictionaryEntry)
        {
            DictionaryEntry dictionaryEntry = (DictionaryEntry)value;
            stringBuilder.AppendLine($"{options.Indent}{propertyName} = {dictionaryEntry.Key} : {dictionaryEntry.Value}");
        }
        else if (value is Exception)
        {
            var innerException = (Exception)value;
            AppendException(
                stringBuilder,
                propertyName,
                innerException,
                options);
        }
        else if (value is IEnumerable && !(value is string))
        {
            var collection = (IEnumerable)value;
            if (collection.GetEnumerator().MoveNext())
            {
                AppendCollection(
                    stringBuilder,
                    propertyName,
                    collection,
                    options);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            stringBuilder.AppendLine($"{options.Indent}{propertyName} = {value}");
        }
    }
}

public struct ExceptionOptions
{
    public static readonly ExceptionOptions Default = new ExceptionOptions()
    {
        CurrentIndentLevel = 0,
        IndentSpaces = 4,
        OmitNullProperties = true
    };

    internal ExceptionOptions(ExceptionOptions options, int currentIndent)
    {
        this.CurrentIndentLevel = currentIndent;
        this.IndentSpaces = options.IndentSpaces;
        this.OmitNullProperties = options.OmitNullProperties;
    }

    internal string Indent { get { return new string(' ', this.IndentSpaces * this.CurrentIndentLevel); } }

    internal int CurrentIndentLevel { get; set; }

    public int IndentSpaces { get; set; }

    public bool OmitNullProperties { get; set; }
}

Top Tip - Logging Exceptions

Most people will be using this code for logging. Consider using Serilog with my Serilog.Exceptions NuGet package which also logs all properties of an exception but does it faster and without reflection in the majority of cases. Serilog is a very advanced logging framework which is all the rage at the time of writing.

Top Tip - Human Readable Stack Traces

You can use the Ben.Demystifier NuGet package to get human readable stack traces for your exceptions or the serilog-enrichers-demystify NuGet package if you are using Serilog.

I'd say @Wim is right. You should use ToString() for logfiles - assuming a technical audience - and Message, if at all, to display to the user. One could argue that even that is not suitable for a user, for every exception type and occurance out there (think of ArgumentExceptions, etc.).

Also, in addition to the StackTrace, ToString() will include information you will not get otherwise. For example the output of fusion, if enabled to include log messages in exception "messages".

Some exception types even include additional information (for example from custom properties) in ToString(), but not in the Message.

Depends on the information you need. For debugging the stack trace & inner exception are useful:

    string message =
        "Exception type " + ex.GetType() + Environment.NewLine +
        "Exception message: " + ex.Message + Environment.NewLine +
        "Stack trace: " + ex.StackTrace + Environment.NewLine;
    if (ex.InnerException != null)
    {
        message += "---BEGIN InnerException--- " + Environment.NewLine +
                   "Exception type " + ex.InnerException.GetType() + Environment.NewLine +
                   "Exception message: " + ex.InnerException.Message + Environment.NewLine +
                   "Stack trace: " + ex.InnerException.StackTrace + Environment.NewLine +
                   "---END Inner Exception";
    }