Detailed Exception class

   The C# StackTrace class can be useful for logging the source of errors, but when your assembly is built in Release mode, you lose valuable information in the StackFrame, like the line number, the column number or the file name.

   Part of my error handling strategy involved setting an error string, and using StackTrace to log the function calling the setter and the location in the code the error occurred. Unfortionatly, as mentioned above, I was losing error information like line number, and that kind of information sure is nice to have. Thats why I invented the DetailedException class.

   In .NET 4.5, one can get caller information by the use of default value parameters tagged with an special attribute, namely CallerFilePathAttribute, CallerMemberNameAttribute, CallerLineNumberAttribute.


How about a code example:

 [Serializable]
 public class DetailedException : Exception
 {
  public int SourceLineNumber { get; private set; }
  public string SourceFilePath { get; private set; }
  public string SourceMemberName { get; private set; }
   
  public DetailedException(string message,
     [CallerMemberName] string sourceMemberName = "",
     [CallerFilePath] string sourceFilePath = "",
     [CallerLineNumber] int sourceLineNumber = 0)
   : base(message)
  {
   this.SourceMemberName = sourceMemberName;
   this.SourceFilePath = sourceFilePath;
   this.SourceLineNumber = sourceLineNumber;
  }

   Now if you have to throw an exception, throw new DetailedException("Testing DetailedException. WOW. SUCH DETAILS."); and you will gain information like SourceLineNumber!

   If you decide to overload the constructor, be warned: You will be required to use named parameters when calling the DetailedException constructor