Proper way to find the innermost exception?

Question

I'm working with some classes which, when throwing, have a relatively deep InnerException tree. I'd like to log and act upon the innermost exception which is the one having the real reason for the problem.

I'm currently using something similar to

public static Exception getInnermostException(Exception e) {
    while (e.InnerException != null) {
        e = e.InnerException;
    }
    return e;
}

Is this the proper way to handle Exception trees?

Answer 1

I think you can get the innermost exception using the following code:

public static Exception getInnermostException(Exception e) { 
    return e.GetBaseException(); 
}

Answer 2

You could use the GetBaseException method. Very quick example:

try
{
    try
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("Innermost exception");
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        throw new Exception("Wrapper 1",ex);
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Writes out the ArgumentException details
    Console.WriteLine(ex.GetBaseException().ToString());
}