finally#

try/except#

If you repeated examples that were used before, there could be situations where a mistake was made. It was probably a syntax error when a colon was missing, for example. Python generally reacts quite understandably to such errors and they can easily be corrected. However, even if the code is syntactically correct, errors can occur. In Python, these errors are called exceptions.

Examples of exceptions:

In [1]: 2/0
-----------------------------------------------------
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero

In [2]: 'test' + 2
-----------------------------------------------------
TypeError: must be str, not int

In this case, two exceptions were raised: ZeroDivisionError and TypeError.

Most often, it is possible to predict what kind of exceptions will occur during execution of the program. For example, if program expects two numbers in input and output returns their sum and user has entered a string instead of one of numbers a TypeError error will appear as in example above.

Python allows working with exceptions. They can be intercepted and acted upon if an exception has been occurred.

Note

When an exception appears, program is immediately interrupted.

In order to work with exceptions try/except statement is used:

In [3]: try:
   ...:     2/0
   ...: except ZeroDivisionError:
   ...:     print("You can't divide by zero")
   ...:
You can't divide by zero

The try statement works as follows:

first execute expressions that are written in try block
if there are no exceptions during execution of try block, block except is skipped and the following code is executed
if there is an exception within try block, the rest part of try block is skipped
- if except block contains an exception which has been occurred, code in except block is executed
- if exception that has raised is not specified in except block, program execution is interrupted and an error is generated

Note that Cool! string in try block is not displayed:

In [4]: try:
   ...:     print("Let's divide some numbers")
   ...:     2/0
   ...:     print('Cool!')
   ...: except ZeroDivisionError:
   ...:     print("You can't divide by zero")
   ...:
Let's divide some numbers
You can't divide by zero

try/except statement may have many except if different actions are needed depending on type of error.

For example, divide.py script divides two numbers entered by user:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

try:
    a = input("Enter first number: ")
    b = input("Enter second number: ")
    print("Result: ", int(a)/int(b))
except ValueError:
    print("Please enter only numbers")
except ZeroDivisionError:
    print("You can't divide by zero")

Examples of script execution:

$ python divide.py
Enter first number: 3
Enter second number: 1
Result:  3

$ python divide.py
Enter first number: 5
Enter second number: 0
You can't divide by zero

$ python divide.py
Enter first number: qewr
Enter second number: 3
Please enter only numbers

In this case, ValueError exception raised when user has entered a string instead of a number. ZeroDivisionError exception raised if second number is 0.

If you do not need to print different messages on ValueError and ZeroDivisionError, you can do this (divide_ver2.py file):

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

try:
    a = input("Enter first number: ")
    b = input("Enter second number: ")
    print("Result: ", int(a)/int(b))
except (ValueError, ZeroDivisionError):
    print("Something went wrong...")

Verification:

$ python divide_ver2.py
Enter first number: wer
Enter second number: 4
Something went wrong...

$ python divide_ver2.py
Enter first number: 5
Enter second number: 0
Something went wrong...

Note

In block except you don’t have to specify a specific exception or exceptions. In that case, all exceptions would be intercepted.

That is not recommended!

try/except/else#

Try/except has an optional else block. It is implemented if there is no exception.

For example, if you need to perform any further operations with data that user entered, you can write them in else block (divide_ver3.py file):

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

try:
    a = input("Enter first number: ")
    b = input("Enter second number: ")
    result = int(a)/int(b)
except (ValueError, ZeroDivisionError):
    print("Something went wrong...")
else:
    print("Result is squared: ", result``2)

Example of execution:

$ python divide_ver3.py
Enter first number: 10
Enter second number: 2
Result is squared:  25

$ python divide_ver3.py
Enter first number: werq
Enter second number: 3
Something went wrong...

try/except/finally#

Block finally is another optional block in try statement. It is always implemented, whether an exception has been raised or not. It’s about actions that you have to do anyway. For example, it could be a file closing.

File divide_ver4.py с блоком finally:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

try:
    a = input("Enter first number: ")
    b = input("Enter second number: ")
    result = int(a)/int(b)
except (ValueError, ZeroDivisionError):
    print("Something went wrong...")
else:
    print("Result is squared: ", result``2)
finally:
    print("And they lived happily ever after.")

Verification:

$ python divide_ver4.py
Enter first number: 10
Enter second number: 2
Result is squared:  25
And they lived happily ever after.

$ python divide_ver4.py
Enter first number: qwerewr
Enter second number: 3
Something went wrong...
And they lived happily ever after.

$ python divide_ver4.py
Enter first number: 4
Enter second number: 0
Something went wrong...
And they lived happily ever after.

When to use exceptions#

As a rule, same code can be written with or without exceptions.

For example, this version of code:

while True:
    a = input("Enter first number: ")
    b = input("Enter second number: ")
    try:
        result = int(a)/int(b)
    except ValueError:
        print("Only digits are supported")
    except ZeroDivisionError:
        print("You can't divide by zero")
    else:
        print(result)
        break

You can rewrite this without try/except (try_except_divide.py file):

while True:
    a = input("Enter first number: ")
    b = input("Enter second number: ")
    if a.isdigit() and b.isdigit():
        if int(b) == 0:
            print("You can't divide by zero")
        else:
            print(int(a)/int(b))
            break
    else:
        print("Only digits are supported")

But the same option without exceptions will not always be simple and understandable.

It is important to assess in each specific situation which version of code is more comprehensible, compact and universal - with or without exceptions.

If you’ve used some other programming language before, it’s possible that use of exceptions was considered a bad form. In Python this is not true. To get a little bit more into this issue, look at the links to additional material at the end of this section.