How can I get powershell exception descriptions into a string? - exception

Question

I want to have access to the same message that Powershell prints when you send an error record to the output stream
Example:
This is the exception message At
C:\Documents and
Settings\BillBillington\Desktop\psTest\exThrower.ps1:1
char:6
+ throw <<<< (New-Object ArgumentException("This is the
exception"));
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [],
ArgumentException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : This is the exception
I when a get the last ErrorRecord by doing $Error[0] I can't seem to figure out how to get this information in a simple way
I found this 'Resolve-Error' function from the community extensions here which does roughly what I want but it prints a huge semi-formatted list of stuff I don't need that I have to then strip
Is there way of accessing the message that Powershell uses or failing that a simpler way of getting hash of the values I care about so I can put them into a string in a format of my choosing?

Answer 1

How about:
$x = ($error[0] | out-string)
Is that what you wanted?

Answer 2

If you want a bit shorter message (more user friendly sometimes?) than #tomasr suggests this will do:
$error[0].ToString() + $error[0].InvocationInfo.PositionMessage
You will get something like:
Cannot find path 'C:\TEMP\_100804_135716\missing' because it does not exist.
At C:\TEMP\_100804_135716\test.ps1:5 char:15
+ Get-ChildItem <<<< missing
This technical info will be excluded:
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (C:\TEMP\_100804_135716\missing:String) [Get-ChildItem], ItemNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand

Answer 3

I took it a bit further because I didn't like the multilines from $error[0].InvocationInfo.PositionMessage.
Function FriendlyErrorString ($thisError) {
[string] $Return = $thisError.Exception
$Return += "`r`n"
$Return += "At line:" + $thisError.InvocationInfo.ScriptLineNumber
$Return += " char:" + $thisError.InvocationInfo.OffsetInLine
$Return += " For: " + $thisError.InvocationInfo.Line
Return $Return
}
[string] $ErrorString = FriendlyErrorString $Error[0]
$ErrorString
You can look at what else is availible to construct your own String via:
$Error | Get-Member
$Error[0].InvocationInfo | Get-Member

Answer 4

Foreach ($Errors in $Error){
#Log Eintrag wird zusammengesetzt und in errorlog.txt geschrieben
"[$Date] $($Errors.CategoryInfo.Category) $($Errors.CategoryInfo.Activity) $($Errors.CategoryInfo.Reason) $($Errors.CategoryInfo.TargetName) $($Errors.CategoryInfo.TargetType) $($Errors.Exception.Message)" |Add-Content $Path\errorlog.txt -Encoding UTF8
}
You can also do this and you will get all Informations about the Error

Answer 5

Similar to #tomasr, but shorter:
$($error[0])
For all errors in a script:
$($error)