diff --git a/Lib/xml/dom/__init__.py b/Lib/xml/dom/__init__.py
index 5eb15aedc47..2dbb69502c0 100644
--- a/Lib/xml/dom/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/xml/dom/__init__.py
@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
                 "DOMException should not be instantiated directly")
         apply(Exception.__init__, (self,) + args, kw)
 
+    def _get_code(self):
+        return self.code
+
 
 class IndexSizeErr(DOMException):
     code = INDEX_SIZE_ERR