Can Python's logging format be modified depending on the message log level?

I just ran into this issue and had trouble filling in the "holes" left in the above example. Here's a more complete, working version that I used. Hopefully this helps someone:

# Custom formatter
class MyFormatter(logging.Formatter):

    err_fmt  = "ERROR: %(msg)s"
    dbg_fmt  = "DBG: %(module)s: %(lineno)d: %(msg)s"
    info_fmt = "%(msg)s"


    def __init__(self, fmt="%(levelno)s: %(msg)s"):
        logging.Formatter.__init__(self, fmt)


    def format(self, record):

        # Save the original format configured by the user
        # when the logger formatter was instantiated
        format_orig = self._fmt

        # Replace the original format with one customized by logging level
        if record.levelno == logging.DEBUG:
            self._fmt = MyFormatter.dbg_fmt

        elif record.levelno == logging.INFO:
            self._fmt = MyFormatter.info_fmt

        elif record.levelno == logging.ERROR:
            self._fmt = MyFormatter.err_fmt

        # Call the original formatter class to do the grunt work
        result = logging.Formatter.format(self, record)

        # Restore the original format configured by the user
        self._fmt = format_orig

        return result

Edit:

Compliments of Halloleo, here's an example of how to use the above in your script:

fmt = MyFormatter()
hdlr = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)

hdlr.setFormatter(fmt)
logging.root.addHandler(hdlr)
logging.root.setLevel(DEBUG)

Edit 2:

Python3 logging has changed a bit. See here for a Python3 approach.

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Yes, you can do this by having a custom Formatter class:

class MyFormatter(logging.Formatter):
    def format(self, record):
        #compute s according to record.levelno
        #for example, by setting self._fmt
        #according to the levelno, then calling
        #the superclass to do the actual formatting
        return s

Then attach a MyFormatter instance to your handlers.

---

And again like JS answer but more compact.

class SpecialFormatter(logging.Formatter):
    FORMATS = {logging.DEBUG :"DBG: %(module)s: %(lineno)d: %(message)s",
               logging.ERROR : "ERROR: %(message)s",
               logging.INFO : "%(message)s",
               'DEFAULT' : "%(levelname)s: %(message)s"}

    def format(self, record):
        self._fmt = self.FORMATS.get(record.levelno, self.FORMATS['DEFAULT'])
        return logging.Formatter.format(self, record)

hdlr = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stderr)
hdlr.setFormatter(SpecialFormatter())
logging.root.addHandler(hdlr)
logging.root.setLevel(logging.INFO)

---

ONE WAY OF DOING THIS

Define a class

import logging

class CustomFormatter(logging.Formatter):
    """Logging Formatter to add colors and count warning / errors"""

    grey = "\x1b[38;21m"
    yellow = "\x1b[33;21m"
    red = "\x1b[31;21m"
    bold_red = "\x1b[31;1m"
    reset = "\x1b[0m"
    format = "%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s (%(filename)s:%(lineno)d)"

    FORMATS = {
        logging.DEBUG: grey + format + reset,
        logging.INFO: grey + format + reset,
        logging.WARNING: yellow + format + reset,
        logging.ERROR: red + format + reset,
        logging.CRITICAL: bold_red + format + reset
    }

    def format(self, record):
        log_fmt = self.FORMATS.get(record.levelno)
        formatter = logging.Formatter(log_fmt)
        return formatter.format(record)

Instantiate logger

# create logger with 'spam_application'
logger = logging.getLogger("My_app")
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

# create console handler with a higher log level
ch = logging.StreamHandler()
ch.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

ch.setFormatter(CustomFormatter())

logger.addHandler(ch)

And use!

logger.debug("debug message")
logger.info("info message")
logger.warning("warning message")
logger.error("error message")
logger.critical("critical message")

https://i.stack.imgur.com/klCcc.png

---

Instead of relying on styles or internal fields, you could also create a Formatter that delegates to other formatters depending on record.levelno (or other criteria). This is a slightly cleaner solution in my humble opinion. Code below should work for any python version >= 2.7:

The simple way would look something like this:

class MyFormatter(logging.Formatter):

    default_fmt = logging.Formatter('%(levelname)s in %(name)s: %(message)s')
    info_fmt = logging.Formatter('%(message)s')

    def format(self, record):
        if record.levelno == logging.INFO:
            return self.info_fmt.format(record)
        else:
            return self.default_fmt.format(record)

But you could make it more generic:

class VarFormatter(logging.Formatter):

    default_formatter = logging.Formatter('%(levelname)s in %(name)s: %(message)s')

    def __init__(self, formats):
        """ formats is a dict { loglevel : logformat } """
        self.formatters = {}
        for loglevel in formats:
            self.formatters[loglevel] = logging.Formatter(formats[loglevel])

    def format(self, record):
        formatter = self.formatters.get(record.levelno, self.default_formatter)
        return formatter.format(record)

I used a dict as input here, but obviously you could also use tuples, **kwargs, whatever floats your boat. This would then be used like:

formatter = VarFormatter({logging.INFO: '[%(message)s]', 
                          logging.WARNING: 'warning: %(message)s'})
<... attach formatter to logger ...>

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This is an adaptation of estani's answer to the new implementation of logging.Formatter which now relies on formatting styles. Mine relies on '{' style format, but it can be adapted. Could be refined to be more general and allow selection of formatting style and custom messages as arguments to __init__, too.

class SpecialFormatter(logging.Formatter):
    FORMATS = {logging.DEBUG : logging._STYLES['{']("{module} DEBUG: {lineno}: {message}"),
           logging.ERROR : logging._STYLES['{']("{module} ERROR: {message}"),
           logging.INFO : logging._STYLES['{']("{module}: {message}"),
           'DEFAULT' : logging._STYLES['{']("{module}: {message}")}

    def format(self, record):
        # Ugly. Should be better
        self._style = self.FORMATS.get(record.levelno, self.FORMATS['DEFAULT'])
        return logging.Formatter.format(self, record)

hdlr = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stderr)
hdlr.setFormatter(SpecialFormatter())
logging.root.addHandler(hdlr)
logging.root.setLevel(logging.INFO)

---

The above solution works with 3.3.3 release. However with 3.3.4 you get the following error.

FORMATS = { logging.DEBUG : logging._STYLES['{']("{module} DEBUG: {lineno}: {message}"),

TypeError: 'tuple' object is not callable

After some searching around in the logging class Lib\logging__init__.py I found that a data structure has changed from 3.3.3 to 3.3.4 that causes the issue

3.3.3

_STYLES = {
    '%': PercentStyle,
    '{': StrFormatStyle,
    '$': StringTemplateStyle
}

3.3.4

_STYLES = {
   '%': (PercentStyle, BASIC_FORMAT),
   '{': (StrFormatStyle, '{levelname}:{name}:{message} AA'),
    '$': (StringTemplateStyle, '${levelname}:${name}:${message} BB'),
}

The updated solution is therefore

class SpecialFormatter(logging.Formatter):
     FORMATS = {logging.DEBUG : logging._STYLES['{'][0]("{module} DEBUG: {lineno}: {message}"),
       logging.ERROR : logging._STYLES['{'][0]("{module} ERROR: {message}"),
       logging.INFO : logging._STYLES['{'][0]("{module}: {message}"),
       'DEFAULT' : logging._STYLES['{'][0]("{module}: {message}")}

 def format(self, record):
    # Ugly. Should be better
    self._style = self.FORMATS.get(record.levelno, self.FORMATS['DEFAULT'])
    return logging.Formatter.format(self, record)

---

If you are just looking to skip formatting certain levels, you can do something simpler than the other answers like the following:

class FormatterNotFormattingInfo(logging.Formatter):
    def __init__(self, fmt = '%(levelname)s:%(message)s'):
        logging.Formatter.__init__(self, fmt)

    def format(self, record):
        if record.levelno == logging.INFO:
            return record.getMessage()
        return logging.Formatter.format(self, record)

This also has the advantage of working before and after the 3.2 release by not using internal variables like self._fmt nor self._style.

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