How to get line number of specific stacktrace private static void log(String prefix, String message) { StackTraceElement ste = new Exception().getStackTrace()[2]; System.out.println("[" + prefix + "] " + ste.getClassName() + "." + ste.getMethodName() + "(" + ste.getLineNumber() + "): " + message); } http://jroller.com/page/davinci/20050602#abusing_java_for_debugging_purposes Annotation of using stacktrace - http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=55238#312195