Getting the Calling method through Reflection

Having recently created a simple framework for other developers to use, I needed to create a custom Exception class to use when throwing exceptions.

When throwing an exception in a WinForms application I always generate my own Exception class, which adds some other useful information that I can package along with the actual exception that was originally thrown. Although the Call Stack is included in the actual exception, one thing that I like to do is tell the developer the method in which the exception was originally thrown. This removes the need for the developer to navigate through the exception as all they are initially after is where the Exception occured.

In the past I would have normally simply passed in the method name like so:

throw new Exception(connSettings, MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().Name, “Argument is Null”, ex);

But I decided to spend some time making this transparent. In the end I was able to put this in the actual Exception class using the following method which is called as a part of the constructor of the Exception class:

private void SetCallingMethod()

{
method = new StackFrame(2, false).GetMethod().Name;
}

In this we open up a new stack trace and navigate to the second frame in the trace (remembering that frame 1 of the stack will result in the constructor method). Now the code to create the new exception is simpler:

throw new Exception(connSettings, “Argument is Null”, ex);

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