User friendly exception error delphi - delphi

Question

I have this method where i execute a sql statement and catch a error in a try except statement
AdoQuery := TAdoQuery.Create(self);
AdoQuery.connection := AdoConnection;
AdoQuery.SQL.Add(sqlStr);
AdoQuery.Prepared := true;
try
begin
AdoQuery.ExecSql;
AdoQuery.Active := false;
end;
except on e:eAdoError do
ShowMessage('Error while creating the table: ' + e.Message);
end;
I can catch the error like this and show it to the user but it's showing some useless info for the user. I Would like to show only the %msg part of the error, take a look at the pic:
I tought e.MEssage allow me to get only the %msg part but it give me the whole thing hardly understoodable by a random user. How do i get only the usefull info in this case
Table reftabtest.rPCE already exists
Thank you.

Answer 1

You can use the Errors property of the TADOConnection object, what you want is the Description member of the Error object.
In your case:
function ParseOBDCError(ErrorDescription : String) : String;
var
Ps : Integer;
Pattern : String;
begin
Pattern := '%msg:';
Ps := Pos(Pattern, ErrorDescription);
if Ps > 0 then
begin
Result := Copy(ErrorDescription, Ps+Length(Pattern)+1);
// if you want, you can clean out other parts like < and >
Result := StringReplace(Result, '<', , '', [rfReplaceAll]);
Result := StringReplace(Result, '>', , '', [rfReplaceAll]);
Result := Trim(Result);
end
else
Result := ErrorDescription;
end;
...
AdoQuery := TAdoQuery.Create(self);
AdoQuery.connection := AdoConnection;
AdoQuery.SQL.Add(sqlStr);
AdoQuery.Prepared := true;
try
AdoQuery.ExecSql;
AdoQuery.Active := false;
except on e : Exception do
begin
if AdoConnection.Errors.Count > 0 then
ShowMessageFmt('Error while creating the table: %s',
[ParseOBDCError(AdoConnection.Errors[0].Description)])
else
ShowMessageFmt('something went wrong here: %s', [e.Message]);
end;
end;

Answer 2

That message dialog wasn't shown by your ShowMessage() code.
First, the icon is wrong - that's not the ShowMessage icon.
Second, the text you added ('Error while creating the table: ') to the message is missing.
This means your exception swallower is not catching the exception, because it's not of the EADOError class. So what's happening is the application's default exception handler is showing the exception.
Before I explain how to fix it, I need to point out that your exception swallower is wrong (your's should not be misnamed an exception handler).
Because you're swallowing the exception: If another method calls yours it will incorrectly think you method succeeded, and possibly do something it shouldn't. You should never write code that makes an assumption that there isn't a significant call stack leading into your method.
Swallowing to show a message to the user doesn't help, because it hides the error from the rest of the program. Especially since, as you can see: there is already code in one place that tells the user about the error without hiding it from the rest of the program. (The problem you have is that you want a friendlier message.)
To fix it:
First find out what the actual exception class is, so you're able to catch the correct error.
Now you have a number of options, but the simplest is as follows:
First log the exception, preferably with call stack. You don't want to be stuck in the situation where the user gets a friendly message but you as developer lose critical information if you need to do some debugging.
To get the call stack you can consider third-party tools like Mad Except, Exceptional Magic, JCLDebug to name a few.
Now show the message to the user.
Finally call Abort. This raises an EAbort exception which by convention is a "silent exception". It tells the rest of the program that there was an error (so it doesn't do things assuming everything is fine). But by convention, any further exception handlers should not show another message to the user. This includes the default handler's dialog in your question.
If the default handler is incorrectly showing EAbort messages, then it should be fixed.