Make Mysql errors caught in c# user friendly

Question

I am trying to return user friendly error message when a Mysql Exception is thrown in c#. I am currently returning the exception message but that message is not very user friendly. So I was wondering if any one of you had any trick that does not require any fancy regex parsing of the error messages received to display them to the user in a manner that would make sense to them.

I am trying to stay away from complex validation code prior to inserting/updating/deleting a record but that seems to be the only way ... unless you know better!

Every mysql error has an error code: dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/error-messages-server.html You can write your own error messages for those. — Marc B
– Marc B, Commented Nov 15, 2011 at 15:05
Hey Marc, that seems like a good idea but from which method in the exception object can I get this code ? I only seem to be getting the MySql.Data Exception and the message from the db without the error code — Stainedart
– Stainedart, Commented Nov 15, 2011 at 15:13

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:52:35Z

11

As Marc B pointed that every Mysql error has an error code, so you can catch a MySqlException using a try ... catch block like this:

try
{

}
catch (MySqlException ex)
{
    int errorcode = ex.Number;
}

So you can write a case statement to provide the error message for each error code, here are a list of server error codes and messages.

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:52

CommunityBot

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answered Nov 15, 2011 at 15:28

Mahmoud Gamal

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1 Comment

Stainedart Over a year ago

Yes I figured my main problem was I was catching Exception and not the specific MySqlException so I did not have access to the Number attribute. Thanks a lot.

Losbear · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-15 15:06:32Z

1

You could try catching the specific sql error message and display it

Try

Catch ex as SqlException
'''sql specific error message
''ie: 
response.write("oops! error message: " & ex.message)
Catch ex as Exception
'''any other runtime error messages
End Try

answered Nov 15, 2011 at 15:06

Losbear

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2 Comments

Stainedart Over a year ago

Hi Carlos, this is what I am currently doing but a duplicate key on insertion is not a message easily understandable by everyone I am trying to build on those error a user-friendly message like "the value entered is already present in the system"

Losbear Over a year ago

Unfortunately there is no way of translating error messages into wording your average Joe will understand. What i've done in the past is use a resource file and put in one column the .Net exception message and then in the second column the enduser translation. Very tidious, but for that project i had a requirement that the error had to be easy to understand by the user. Exceptions are really designed for programmers to handle programmatically (translate intoa a userfriendly message, log the error, etc) to handle errors more gracefully.

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