getMessage

getMessage is a common method name used in several programming languages to retrieve the textual description associated with an object, most often an exception or error object. It returns the detail message that explains what went wrong or what the object represents.

In Java, getMessage is defined by the Throwable class. Its signature is public String getMessage(). It returns the detail message string that was provided when the throwable was created, or null if no message was given. Java also offers getLocalizedMessage() for locale-specific formatting of the message.

In PHP, getMessage is a method of the Exception class (and its subclasses). It returns a string containing the exception message that was set when the exception was constructed, for example, new Exception("Invalid input"); then $e->getMessage() yields "Invalid input". If no message was provided, the method returns an empty string.

Other languages may expose similar functionality under different names. For instance, C# uses a Message property on System.Exception rather than a getMessage method, while Ruby exposes a message method. In many custom classes, getMessage may be implemented as part of a standard interface or convention for retrieving descriptive text.

Usage of getMessage typically occurs after catching an exception to log or display a descriptive error, or to construct user-facing feedback without exposing sensitive internal details. When presenting messages, developers should avoid leaking sensitive information and consider localization or abstraction of error details.

See also: getLocalizedMessage in Java, exception handling, logging practices.