# What's the right way to unwrap a \`TaskFailedException\`?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [February 11, 2021, 10:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052 "2021-02-11T10:02:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BridgeBot](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BridgeBot)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2021, 10:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052/1 "2021-02-11T10:02:53Z")
What’s the right way to unwrap a `TaskFailedException`? `err.task.exception.task.exception` gives me the original exception, but that seems very brittle.
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---
### Author:  [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2021, 10:18am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052/2 "2021-02-11T10:18:29Z")
Turns out I just got confused because I had two nested `TaskFailedException`s without realizing.
```julia
julia> t = @async 0//0;
julia> err = try
wait(t)
catch err
err
end
TaskFailedException(Task (failed) @0x00007f886e84bd00)
julia> err.task.exception
ArgumentError("invalid rational: zero(Int64)//zero(Int64)")
```
seems totally fine.
---
### Author:  [@pbayer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pbayer)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2021, 10:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052/3 "2021-02-11T10:23:38Z")
> [@pfitzseb](#):
>
> `t = @async 0//0;`
```julia
julia> t
Task (failed) @0x000000011347f310
ArgumentError: invalid rational: zero(Int64)//zero(Int64)
```
---
### Author:  [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2021, 10:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052/4 "2021-02-11T10:25:20Z")
That’s not particularly helpful, since
```julia
julia> typeof(t)
Task
```
So while this is pretty printed I can’t actually do anything with it.
---
### Author:  [@pbayer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pbayer)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2021, 10:27am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052/5 "2021-02-11T10:27:21Z")
ok, but
```julia
julia> t.result
ArgumentError("invalid rational: zero(Int64)//zero(Int64)")
```
---
### Author:  [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2021, 10:31am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052/6 "2021-02-11T10:31:10Z")
Sure, that’s basically what I wrote above, no? Except with `exception` instead of `result`.
---
### Author:  [@pbayer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pbayer)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2021, 10:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052/7 "2021-02-11T10:37:44Z")
I wanted only to point out, that having the task variable `t` or a channel – if it happens to be bound to a channel –, you have direct access to the exception without wrapping it in a `try - catch` block. I use it all the time.
---
### Author:  [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2021, 10:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-right-way-to-unwrap-a-taskfailedexception/55052/8 "2021-02-11T10:42:25Z")
Right, makes sense.
This did indeed come up in the context of iterating over a `Channel` (returned from `walkdir`), but it seems easier to look at the caught exception than accessing the channel directly to me.