Get the exeption error description

Hi,

Is there a way to know the error description / message in a BEGIN END block in a plpgsql functioin as in the ‘Appendix A. PostgreSQL Error Codes’ ?

I would like to pass it back to the function caller

DECLARE

  the_error   varchar;     

BEGIN

                ……  …….   …..

                ……  …….   …..

      EXCEPTION WHEN OTHERS THEN

the_error :=  ERROR DESCRIPTION; ?

      END;

Thanks,

Paolo