[python] How to get exception message in Python properly

What is the best way to get exceptions' messages from components of standard library in Python?

I noticed that in some cases you can get it via message field like this:

try:
  pass
except Exception as ex:
  print(ex.message)

but in some cases (for example, in case of socket errors) you have to do something like this:

try:
  pass
except socket.error as ex:
  print(ex)

I wondered is there any standard way to cover most of these situations?

To improve on the answer provided by @artofwarfare, here is what I consider a neater way to check for the message attribute and print it or print the Exception object as a fallback.

try:
    pass 
except Exception as e:
    print getattr(e, 'message', repr(e))

The call to repr is optional, but I find it necessary in some use cases.

Update #1:

Following the comment by @MadPhysicist, here's a proof of why the call to repr might be necessary. Try running the following code in your interpreter:

try:
    raise Exception 
except Exception as e:
    print(getattr(e, 'message', repr(e)))
    print(getattr(e, 'message', str(e)))

Update #2:

Here is a demo with specifics for Python 2.7 and 3.5: https://gist.github.com/takwas/3b7a6edddef783f2abddffda1439f533

from traceback import format_exc


try:
    fault = 10/0
except ZeroDivision:
    print(format_exc())

Another possibility is to use the format_exc() method from the traceback module.

I too had the same problem. Digging into this I found that the Exception class has an args attribute, which captures the arguments that were used to create the exception. If you narrow the exceptions that except will catch to a subset, you should be able to determine how they were constructed, and thus which argument contains the message.

try:
   # do something that may raise an AuthException
except AuthException as ex:
   if ex.args[0] == "Authentication Timeout.":
      # handle timeout
   else:
      # generic handling

I had the same problem. I think the best solution is to use log.exception, which will automatically print out stack trace and error message, such as:

try:
    pass
    log.info('Success')
except:
    log.exception('Failed')