Error: message

The message data property of an {{jsxref("Error")}} instance is a human-readable description of the error.

Value#

A string corresponding to the value passed to the Error() constructor as the first argument.

{{js_property_attributes(1, 0, 1)}}

Description#

This property contains a brief description of the error if one is available or has been set. The message property combined with the {{jsxref("Error/name", "name")}} property is used by the {{jsxref("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 {{jsxref("Error/Error", "Error")}} constructor.

Examples#

Throwing a custom error#

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

Specifications#

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility#

{{Compat}}

See also#

• {{jsxref("Error.prototype.name")}}
• {{jsxref("Error.prototype.toString()")}}