"I'm not back." - Bill Harding, Twister
Originally posted by Jim Yingst: PrintStream printer = new PrintStream(new FileOutputStream("file.txt")); ex.printStackTrace(printer); or PrintWriter printer = new PrintWriter (new FileWriter("file.txt")); ex.printStackTrace(printer); If you wish to do anything with the stack trace other than write it to a file, you can convert it to a String: StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(); PrintWriter printer = new PrintWriter (sw); ex.printStackTrace(printer); String stackTrace = sw.toString(); And if you're using 1.4 (and why not?) you can use other methods: StackTraceElement[] elements = ex.getStackTrace(); for (int i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) { StackTraceElement element = elements[i]; System.out.println(element); }