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error.message

The message property is a human-readable description of the error.

Description

This property contains a brief description of the error if one is available or has been set. SpiderMonkey makes extensive use of the message property for exceptions. The message property combined with the name property is used by the Error.prototype.toString() method to create a string representation of the Error.

By default, the message property is an empty string, but this behavior can be overridden for an instance by specifying a message as the first argument to the Error constructor.

Examples

Throwing a custom error

var e = new Error('Could not parse input'); 
// e.message is 'Could not parse input'
throw e;

Specifications

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

Desktop
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support Yes Yes 1 6 Yes Yes
Mobile
Android webview Chrome for Android Edge Mobile Firefox for Android Opera for Android iOS Safari Samsung Internet
Basic support Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes Yes
Server
Node.js
Basic support Yes

See also

© 2005–2018 Mozilla Developer Network and individual contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Error/message