Alternative to e.printStackTrace() and an example code will be helpful

Question

I have used e.printStackTrace in one of my Java applications. However, I read in some forum that we should avoid using printStackTrace(). Could somebody explain to me why I should avoid using e.printStackTrace() and what are the alternatives to it? Please share the piece of code for an alternative to e.printStackTrace()

Answer 1

You should avoid it because it is better to use a logger like Log4j, so that you can write logs in a file & manage the logging better.

Indeed, the method

e.printStackTrace()

is used to print the stack of the exception directly in the console, and that (for a production application) is bad.

Answer 2

Loggers should be used instead of printing the whole stack trace on stream. e.printStackTrace() prints a Throwable and its stack trace to stream which could inadvertently expose sensitive information.

Loggers should be used instead to print Throwables, as they have many advantages.

more info : https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/2017/A3_2017-Sensitive_Data_Exposure.html

Answer 3

I usually log errors this way:

} catch (IOException ex) {
  log.log(Level.WARNING, ex.getMessage(), ex);
}

If you use lombok, you can add logger to your class with @Log annotation on class.