Err.Description Property

Err.Description Property

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Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.ErrObject

Syntax

To set the property:

 Err.Description =   string   

To return the property value:

   string   = Err.Description 

string (required; String)

Any string expression

Description

A read/write property containing a short string describing a runtime error

Rules at a Glance

• When a runtime error occurs, the Description property is automatically assigned the standard description of the error.

• For application-defined errors, you must assign a string expression to the Description property, or the error will not have an accompanying textual message.

• You can override the standard description by assigning your own description to the Err object for both VB errors and application-defined errors.

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• If an error occurs within a class module, an ActiveX DLL, or an EXE regardless of whether it is running in or out of your application's process space no error information from the component will be available to your application unless you explicitly pass back an error code as part of the error-handling routine within the component. This is done using the Err.Raise method, which allows you to raise an error on the client, passing custom arguments for Number, Source, and Description.

• If you raise an error with the Err.Raise method and do not set the Description property, the Description property will be automatically set to "Application- efined or Object-Defined Error."

• You can also pass the Err.Description to a logging device, such as a log file in Windows 95 or the application log in Windows NT, by using the App.LogEvent method, as the following code fragment demonstrates :

   EmployeesAdd_Err: App.LogEvent "EmployeesAdd" & "; " & _              Err.Description, vbLogEventTypeError 

• The best way to set the Description property for your own application-defined errors is to use the named-description argument with the Raise method, as the following code shows:

   Sub TestErr(  ) On Error GoTo TestErr_Err    Err.Raise 65444, _              Description="Meaningful Error Description"      TestErr_Exit:    Exit Sub TestErr_Err:    MsgBox (Err.Description)    Resume TestErr_Exit End Sub 

• VB also supports structured error-handling through the Try...Catch... Finally statement.

See Also

Err.HelpContext Property, Err.HelpFile Property, Err.Number Property, Err.Source Property