How to get the last exception object after an error is raised at a Python prompt?

Solution 1:

The sys module provides some functions for post-hoc examining of exceptions: sys.last_type, sys.last_value, and sys.last_traceback.

sys.last_value is the one you're looking for.

Solution 2:

As @Cairnarvon mentioned, I didn't find any last_valuemember is sys module.

sys.exc_info() did the trick for me. sys.exc_info() returns a tuple with three values (type, value, traceback).

So sys.exc_info()[1] will give the readable error. Here is the example,

import sys
list = [1,2,3,4]
try:
    del list[8]
except Exception:
    print(sys.exc_info()[1])

will output list assignment index out of range

Also, traceback.format_exc() from traceback module can be used to print out the similar information.

Below is the output if format_exec() is used,

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "python", line 6, in <module>
IndexError: list assignment index out of range