This implementation returns the cause that was supplied via one of the constructors requiring a Throwable, or that was set after creation with the Throwable.initCause(Throwable) method. While it is typically unnecessary to override this method, a subclass can override it to return a cause set by some other means. This is appropriate for a "legacy chained throwable" that predates the addition of chained exceptions to Throwable. Note that it is not necessary to override any of the PrintStackTrace methods, all of which invoke the getCause method to determine the cause of a throwable.
Returns: the cause of this throwable or null if the cause is nonexistent or unknown.
Since: 1.4

Some virtual machines may, under some circumstances, omit one or more stack frames from the stack trace. In the extreme case, a virtual machine that has no stack trace information concerning this throwable is permitted to return a zero-length array from this method. Generally speaking, the array returned by this method will contain one element for every frame that would be printed by printStackTrace.
Returns: an array of stack trace elements representing the stack trace pertaining to this throwable.
Since: 1.4

This method can be called at most once. It is generally called from within the constructor, or immediately after creating the throwable. If this throwable was created with Throwable.Throwable(Throwable) or Throwable.Throwable(String,Throwable), this method cannot be called even once.
Returns: a reference to this Throwable instance.
Parameters:
- cause - the cause (which is saved for later retrieval by the {@link #getCause()} method). (A null value is permitted, and indicates that the cause is nonexistent or unknown.)
Throws:
- IllegalArgumentException - if cause is this throwable. (A throwable cannot be its own cause.)
- IllegalStateException - if this throwable was created with {@link #Throwable(Throwable)} or {@link #Throwable(String,Throwable)}, or this method has already been called on this throwable.
Since: 1.4

 java.lang.NullPointerException
         at MyClass.mash(MyClass.java:9)
         at MyClass.crunch(MyClass.java:6)
         at MyClass.main(MyClass.java:3)
 

 class MyClass {
     public static void main(String[] args) {
         crunch(null);
     }
     static void crunch(int[] a) {
         mash(a);
     }
     static void mash(int[] b) {
         System.out.println(b[0]);
     }
 }
 

 HighLevelException: MidLevelException: LowLevelException
         at Junk.a(Junk.java:13)
         at Junk.main(Junk.java:4)
 Caused by: MidLevelException: LowLevelException
         at Junk.c(Junk.java:23)
         at Junk.b(Junk.java:17)
         at Junk.a(Junk.java:11)
         ... 1 more
 Caused by: LowLevelException
         at Junk.e(Junk.java:30)
         at Junk.d(Junk.java:27)
         at Junk.c(Junk.java:21)
         ... 3 more
 

 public class Junk {
     public static void main(String args[]) {
         try {
             a();
         } catch(HighLevelException e) {
             e.printStackTrace();
         }
     }
     static void a() throws HighLevelException {
         try {
             b();
         } catch(MidLevelException e) {
             throw new HighLevelException(e);
         }
     }
     static void b() throws MidLevelException {
         c();
     }
     static void c() throws MidLevelException {
         try {
             d();
         } catch(LowLevelException e) {
             throw new MidLevelException(e);
         }
     }
     static void d() throws LowLevelException {
        e();
     }
     static void e() throws LowLevelException {
         throw new LowLevelException();
     }
 }

 class HighLevelException extends Exception {
     HighLevelException(Throwable cause) { super(cause); }
 }

 class MidLevelException extends Exception {
     MidLevelException(Throwable cause)  { super(cause); }
 }

 class LowLevelException extends Exception {
 }
 

• the name of the class of this object
  
• ": " (a colon and a space)
  
• the result of invoking this object's Throwable.getLocalizedMessage()
  method