Show 'Error message' at the top of the stack trace (less scrolling)

[Juan-132]

The most important information to solve an error in your code is arguably the error message (the exception that was raised). This bit of information is printed at the bottom of the stack trace.

When a developer knows the Error message - the most common error's like typo's in variables/functions - or incorrectly called functions/ parameters can be fixed right away.

Current situation
The Error message is printed at the bottom of the stack trace. This works for traditional python development, as the stack trace is printed to the console/output window. Stack traces in a notebook are however viewed from top to bottom.

This is problematic in case of long stack traces (common for errors that originate from packages like pandas/ numpy). To resolve the error, the user will have to scroll down and up multiple pages (to inspect the error messages -- and subsequently fix it in their code).

Suggestion
Include a copy of the Error message at the top of the stack trace.
This way the code containing the error -- and Error message are always visible in the same view.

Mockup

Example error code

import pandas as pd
chipo = pd.read_csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/justmarkham/DAT8/master/data/chipotle.tsv", sep="\t")
chipo.groupby('item_name').sum()['item_price']

[adamlabadorf]

Here is a quick workaround you can put at the top of your notebook that will only show the exception and not the full stack:

from functools import partial
f = get_ipython().showtraceback
tb = partial(f,exception_only=True)
get_ipython().showtraceback = tb

or for brevity

from functools import partial
get_ipython().showtraceback = partial(get_ipython().showtraceback,exception_only=True)

[alexZhongvai]

Here is a quick workaround you can put at the top of your notebook that will only show the exception and not the full stack:

from functools import partial
f = get_ipython().showtraceback
tb = partial(f,exception_only=True)
get_ipython().showtraceback = tb

or for brevity

from functools import partial
get_ipython().showtraceback = partial(get_ipython().showtraceback,exception_only=True)

Hi, Thanks for this very useful tip. I am new to JupyterLab. Can you kindly recommend how I can run this script for all my notebooks without putting it in every file? Alex