Convert IOException to String?

[John Reese]

Hi,
I don't understand what type the exception below is. I can print it out which makes me think of the exception as a string. However, if I try to save it to a string, I get the following compilation error:

found   : java.io.IOException
required: java.lang.String
				theOutput = anIOException;
				            ^
1 error

How can I save this as a string?

import java.io.*;
String theOutput;
...
try{
 ...

} catch (IOException anIOException) { 
	//System.out.println(anIOException); 
	theOutput = anIOException;

[Ralph Cook]

You could do

theOutput = anIOException.getMessage();

[Rob Spoor]

Or

theOutput = anIOException.toString();

Both can be what you want depending on what you want to be in the String exactly. The String returned by toString() includes the exception's class name and the message, unless it's null. getMessage() only returns the message, and that can be null.