How can I convert a stack trace to a string?

Use Throwable.printStackTrace(PrintWriter pw) to send the stack trace to an appropriate writer.

import java.io.StringWriter;
import java.io.PrintWriter;

// ...

StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(sw);
e.printStackTrace(pw);
String sStackTrace = sw.toString(); // stack trace as a string
System.out.println(sStackTrace);

One can use the following method to convert an Exception stack trace to String. This class is available in Apache commons-lang which is most common dependent library with many popular open sources

org.apache.commons.lang.exception.ExceptionUtils.getStackTrace(Throwable)

This should work:

StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(sw));
String exceptionAsString = sw.toString();

WARNING: Does not include cause (which is usually the useful bit!)

public String stackTraceToString(Throwable e) {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for (StackTraceElement element : e.getStackTrace()) {
        sb.append(element.toString());
        sb.append("\n");
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

Print the stack trace to a PrintStream, then convert it to a String:

// ...

catch (Exception e)
{
    ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream(); 
    e.printStackTrace(new PrintStream(out));
    String str = new String(out.toByteArray());

    System.out.println(str);
}

With Java 8 Stream API you can do something like this:

Stream
    .of(throwable.getStackTrace())
    .map(StackTraceElement::toString)
    .collect(Collectors.joining("\n"));

It will take array of stack trace elements, convert them to string and join into multiline string.

Scala version

def stackTraceToString(e: Exception): String = {
  import java.io.PrintWriter
  val sw = new StringWriter()
  e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(sw))
  sw.toString
}

Few options

1. StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(); e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(sw)); String exceptionAsString = sw.toString();

2. Using Google Guava lib String stackTrace = Throwables.getStackTraceAsString ( myException ) ;

3. org.apache.commons.lang.exception.ExceptionUtils.getStackTrace(Throwable)

 import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.StringWriter;

public class PrintStackTrace {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        try {
            int division = 0 / 0;
        } catch (ArithmeticException e) {
            StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
            e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(sw));
            String exceptionAsString = sw.toString();
            System.out.println(exceptionAsString);
        }
    }
}

When you run the program, the output will be something similar:

java.lang.ArithmeticException: / by zero
at PrintStackTrace.main(PrintStackTrace.java:9)

I wonder why no one mentioned ExceptionUtils.getStackFrames(exception)

For me it's the most convenient way to dump stacktrace with all its causes to the end:

String.join("\n", ExceptionUtils.getStackFrames(exception));

Old question, but I would just like to add the special case where you don't want to print all the stack, by removing some parts you are not actually interested in, excluding certain classes or packages.

Instead of a PrintWriter use a SelectivePrintWriter:

// This filters out this package and up.
String packageNameToFilter = "org.springframework";

StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
PrintWriter pw = new SelectivePrintWriter(sw, packageNameToFilter);
e.printStackTrace(pw);
String sStackTrace = sw.toString(); 
System.out.println(sStackTrace);

Where the SelectivePrintWriter class is given by:

public class SelectivePrintWriter extends PrintWriter {
    private boolean on = true;
    private static final String AT = "\tat";
    private String internal;

    public SelectivePrintWriter(Writer out, String packageOrClassName) {
        super(out);
        internal = "\tat " + packageOrClassName;
    }

    public void println(Object obj) {
        if (obj instanceof String) {
            String txt = (String) obj;
            if (!txt.startsWith(AT)) on = true;
            else if (txt.startsWith(internal)) on = false;
            if (on) super.println(txt);
        } else {
            super.println(obj);
        }
    }
}

Please note this class may be easily adapted to filter out by Regex, contains or other criteria. Also note it depends upon Throwable implementation details (not likely to change, but still).

I wrote a few methods for this a while ago, so I figured why not throw my two cents at this.

/** @param stackTraceElements The elements to convert
 * @return The resulting string */
public static final String stackTraceElementsToStr(StackTraceElement[] stackTraceElements) {
    return stackTraceElementsToStr(stackTraceElements, "\n");
}

/** @param stackTraceElements The elements to convert
 * @param lineSeparator The line separator to use
 * @return The resulting string */
public static final String stackTraceElementsToStr(StackTraceElement[] stackTraceElements, String lineSeparator) {
    return stackTraceElementsToStr(stackTraceElements, lineSeparator, "");
}

/** @param stackTraceElements The elements to convert
 * @param lineSeparator The line separator to use
 * @param padding The string to be used at the start of each line
 * @return The resulting string */
public static final String stackTraceElementsToStr(StackTraceElement[] stackTraceElements, String lineSeparator, String padding) {
    String str = "";
    if(stackTraceElements != null) {
        for(StackTraceElement stackTrace : stackTraceElements) {
            str += padding + (!stackTrace.toString().startsWith("Caused By") ? "\tat " : "") + stackTrace.toString() + lineSeparator;
        }
    }
    return str;
}

/** @param stackTraceElements The elements to convert
 * @return The resulting string */
public static final String stackTraceCausedByElementsOnlyToStr(StackTraceElement[] stackTraceElements) {
    return stackTraceCausedByElementsOnlyToStr(stackTraceElements, "\n");
}

/** @param stackTraceElements The elements to convert
 * @param lineSeparator The line separator to use
 * @return The resulting string */
public static final String stackTraceCausedByElementsOnlyToStr(StackTraceElement[] stackTraceElements, String lineSeparator) {
    return stackTraceCausedByElementsOnlyToStr(stackTraceElements, lineSeparator, "");
}

/** @param stackTraceElements The elements to convert
 * @param lineSeparator The line separator to use
 * @param padding The string to be used at the start of each line
 * @return The resulting string */
public static final String stackTraceCausedByElementsOnlyToStr(StackTraceElement[] stackTraceElements, String lineSeparator, String padding) {
    String str = "";
    if(stackTraceElements != null) {
        for(StackTraceElement stackTrace : stackTraceElements) {
            str += (!stackTrace.toString().startsWith("Caused By") ? "" : padding + stackTrace.toString() + lineSeparator);
        }
    }
    return str;
}

/** @param e The {@link Throwable} to convert
 * @return The resulting String */
public static final String throwableToStrNoStackTraces(Throwable e) {
    return throwableToStrNoStackTraces(e, "\n");
}

/** @param e The {@link Throwable} to convert
 * @param lineSeparator The line separator to use
 * @return The resulting String */
public static final String throwableToStrNoStackTraces(Throwable e, String lineSeparator) {
    return throwableToStrNoStackTraces(e, lineSeparator, "");
}

/** @param e The {@link Throwable} to convert
 * @param lineSeparator The line separator to use
 * @param padding The string to be used at the start of each line
 * @return The resulting String */
public static final String throwableToStrNoStackTraces(Throwable e, String lineSeparator, String padding) {
    if(e == null) {
        return "null";
    }
    String str = e.getClass().getName() + ": ";
    if((e.getMessage() != null) && !e.getMessage().isEmpty()) {
        str += e.getMessage() + lineSeparator;
    } else {
        str += lineSeparator;
    }
    str += padding + stackTraceCausedByElementsOnlyToStr(e.getStackTrace(), lineSeparator, padding);
    for(Throwable suppressed : e.getSuppressed()) {
        str += padding + throwableToStrNoStackTraces(suppressed, lineSeparator, padding + "\t");
    }
    Throwable cause = e.getCause();
    while(cause != null) {
        str += padding + "Caused by:" + lineSeparator + throwableToStrNoStackTraces(e.getCause(), lineSeparator, padding);
        cause = cause.getCause();
    }
    return str;
}

/** @param e The {@link Throwable} to convert
 * @return The resulting String */
public static final String throwableToStr(Throwable e) {
    return throwableToStr(e, "\n");
}

/** @param e The {@link Throwable} to convert
 * @param lineSeparator The line separator to use
 * @return The resulting String */
public static final String throwableToStr(Throwable e, String lineSeparator) {
    return throwableToStr(e, lineSeparator, "");
}

/** @param e The {@link Throwable} to convert
 * @param lineSeparator The line separator to use
 * @param padding The string to be used at the start of each line
 * @return The resulting String */
public static final String throwableToStr(Throwable e, String lineSeparator, String padding) {
    if(e == null) {
        return "null";
    }
    String str = padding + e.getClass().getName() + ": ";
    if((e.getMessage() != null) && !e.getMessage().isEmpty()) {
        str += e.getMessage() + lineSeparator;
    } else {
        str += lineSeparator;
    }
    str += padding + stackTraceElementsToStr(e.getStackTrace(), lineSeparator, padding);
    for(Throwable suppressed : e.getSuppressed()) {
        str += padding + "Suppressed: " + throwableToStr(suppressed, lineSeparator, padding + "\t");
    }
    Throwable cause = e.getCause();
    while(cause != null) {
        str += padding + "Caused by:" + lineSeparator + throwableToStr(e.getCause(), lineSeparator, padding);
        cause = cause.getCause();
    }
    return str;
}

Example:

try(InputStream in = new FileInputStream(file)) {
    ...
} catch(IOException e) {
    String exceptionToString = throwableToStr(e);
    someLoggingUtility.println(exceptionToString);
    ...
}

Prints:

java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\test.txt (The system cannot find the file specified)
    at java.io.FileInputStream.open0(Native Method)
    at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Unknown Source)
    at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at com.gmail.br45entei.Example.main(Example.java:32)