A Beginner's Python

Tutorial/Exception
Handling
< A Beginner's Python Tutorial

If you haven't seen them before, you're not

trying hard enough. What are they? Errors.
Exceptions. Problems. Know what I'm
talking about? I got it with this program:

Code Example 1 - buggy program

def menu(list, question):
for entry in list:
print 1 +
list.index(entry),
print ") " + entry

return
raw_input(question) - 1

# running the function

# remember what the
backslash does
answer =
menu(['A','B','C','D','E','
F','H','I'],\
 'Which letter is your
favourite? ')

print 'You picked answer '

+ (answer + 1)

This is just an example of the menu

program we made earlier. Appears
perfectly fine to me. At least until when I
first tried it. Run the program, and what
happens?

Bugs - Human Errors

The most common problems with your

code are of your own doing. Sad, but true.
What do we see when we try to run our
crippled program?

Code Example 2 - error message

Traceback (most recent call

last):
File
"/home/steven/errortest.py"
, line 10, in -toplevel-
answer = menu(< I'll
snip it here >)
File
"/home/steven/errortest.py"
, line 6, in menu
return
 raw_input(question) - 1
TypeError: unsupported
operand type(s) for -:
'str' and 'int'

Say what? What Python is trying to tell you

(but struggling to find a good word for it) is
that you can't join a string of letters and a
number into one string of text. Let's go
through the error message and have a look
at how it tells us that:

File
"/home/steven/errortest.py",
line 10, in -toplevel- tells us
a couple of things. File
"/home/steven/errortest.py" tells us
which file the error occurred in. This is
useful if you use lots of modules that
refer to each other. line 10, in -toplevel-
tells us that it is in line # 10 of the file,
and in the top level (that is, no
indentation).
answer =
menu(['A','B','C','D','E','F'
,'H','I'],'Which letter is
your favourite? ') duplicates the
code where the error is.
Since this line calls a function, the next
two lines describe where in the function
the error occurred.
 TypeError: unsupported
operand type(s) for -: 'str'
and 'int' tells you the error. In this
case, it is a 'TypeError', where you tried
to subtract incompatible variables.

There are multiple file and code listings for

a single error, because the error occurred
with the interaction of two lines of code
(e.g. when using a function, the error
occurred on the line where the function
was called, AND the line in the function
where things went wrong).

Now that we know what the problem is,

how do we fix it. Well, the error message
has isolated where the problem is, so we'll
only concentrate on that bit of code.

Code Example 3 - calling the menu

function

answer =
menu(['A','B','C','D','E','
F','H','I'],\
'Which letter is your
favourite? ')

This is a call to a function. The error

occurred in the function in the following
line

Code Example 4 - Where it went wrong

 return raw_input(question)
- 1

raw_input always returns a string, hence

our problem. Let's change it to input(),
which, when you type in a number, it
returns a number:

Code Example 5 - Fixing it

return input(question) - 1

Bug fixed!
Exceptions - Limitations of
the Code

Okay, the program works when you do

something normal. But what if you try
something weird? Type in a letter (lets say,
'm') instead of a number? Whoops!

Code Example 6 - Another error

message

Traceback (most recent call

last):
File
"/home/steven/errortest.py"
, line 10, in -toplevel-
 answer = menu(< I'll
snip it here >)
File
"/home/steven/errortest.py"
, line 6, in menu
return input(question)
- 1
File "", line 0, in -
toplevel-
NameError: name 'm' is not
defined

What is this telling us? There are two code

listings - one in line 10, and the other in
line 6. What this is telling us is that when
we called the menu function in line 10, an
error occurred in line 6 (where we take
away 1). This makes sense if you know
what the input() function does - I did a bit
of reading and testing, and realised that if
you type in a letter or word, it will assume
that you are mentioning a variable! so in
line 6, we are trying to take 1 away from
the variable 'm', which doesn't exist.

Have no clue on how to fix this? One of the

best and easiest ways is to use the try and
except operators.

Here is an example of try being used in a

program:

Code Example 7 - The try operator

 try:
function(world,
parameters)
except:
print world.errormsg

This is an example of a really messy bit of

code that I was trying to fix. First, the code
under try: is run. If there is an error, the
compiler jumps to the except section and
prints world.errormsg. The program
doesn't stop right there and crash, it runs
the code under except: then continues on.
Let's try that where the error occurred in
our code (line 6). The menu function now
is:

Code Example 8 - testing our fix

def menu(list, question):

for entry in list:
print 1 +
list.index(entry),
print ") " + entry
try:
return
input(question) - 1
except NameError:
 print "Enter a
correct number"

Try entering a letter when you're asked for

a number and see what happens. Dang.
We fixed one problem, but now it has
caused another problem further down the
track. This happens all the time.
(Sometimes you end up going around in
circles, because your code is an absolute
mess). Let's have a look at the error:

Code Example 9 - Yet another error

message
 Traceback (most recent call
last):
File
"/home/steven/errortest.py"
, line 12, in -toplevel-
print 'You picked
answer', (answer + 1)
TypeError: unsupported
operand type(s) for +:
'NoneType' and 'int'

What has happened this time is that the

menu function has returned no value - it
only printed an error message. When, at
the end of the program, we try to print the
returned value plus 1, what is the returned
value? There is no returned value? So what
is 1 + ... well, we have no clue what we are
adding 1 to!

We could just return any old number, but

that would be lying. What we really should
to is rewrite the program to cope with this
exception. With what? try and except!

Code Example 10 - yet another solution

# from when we finish

defining the function
answer =
menu(['A','B','C','D','E','
F','H','I'],\
'Which letter is your
favourite? ')
try:
print 'You picked
answer', (answer + 1)
# you can put stuff
after a comma in the
'print' statement,
# and it will continue
as if you had typed in
'print' again
except:
print '\nincorrect
answer.'
# the '\n' is for
 formatting reasons. Try
without it and see.

Problem solved again.

Endless Errors

The approach that we used above is not

recommended. Why? Because apart from
the error that we know can happen, except:
catches every other error too. What if this
means we never see an error that could
cause problems down the track? If except:
catches every error under the sun, we have
no hope of controlling what errors we deal
with, and the other ones that we want to
see, because so far we haven't dealt with
them. We also have little hope of dealing
with more than one type of error in the
same block of code. What should one do,
when all is hopeless? Here is an example
of code with such a situation:

Code Example 11 - The Problem We

Face

print 'Subtraction program,

v0.0.1 (beta)'
a = input('Enter a number
to subtract from > ')
b = input('Enter the number
 to subtract > ')
print a - b

Okay, you enter your two numbers and it

works. Enter a letter, and it gives you a
NameError. Lets rewrite the code to deal
with a NameError only. We'll put the
program in a loop, so it restarts if an error
occurs (using continue, which starts the
loop from the top again, and break, which
leaves the loop):

Code Example 12 - Dealing With

NameError
print 'Subtraction program,
v0.0.2 (beta)'
loop = 1
while loop == 1:
try:
a = input('Enter a
number to subtract from >
')
b = input('Enter
the number to subtract > ')
except NameError:
print "\nYou cannot
subtract a letter"
continue
print a - b
 try:
loop = input('Press
1 to try again > ')
except NameError:
loop = 0

Here, we restarted the loop if you typed in

something wrong. In line 12 we assumed
you wanted to quit the program if you
didn't press 1, so we quit the program.

But there are still problems. If we leave

something blank, or type in an unusual
character like ! or ;, the program gives us a
SyntaxError. Lets deal with this. When we
are asking for the numbers to subtract, we
will give a different error message. When
we ask to press 1, we will again assume
the user wants to quit.

Code Example 13 - Now, dealing with

SyntaxError

print 'Subtraction program,

v0.0.3 (beta)'
loop = 1
while loop == 1:
try:
a = input('Enter a
number to subtract from >
')
b = input('Enter
the number to subtract > ')
except NameError:
print "\nYou cannot
subtract a letter"
continue
except SyntaxError:
print "\nPlease
enter a number only."
continue
print a - b
try:
loop = input('Press
1 to try again > ')
except
 (NameError,SyntaxError):
loop = 0

As you can see, you can have multiple

except uses, each dealing with a different
problem. You can also have one except to
deal with multiple exceptions, by putting
them inside parentheses and separating
them with commas.

Now we have a program that is very

difficult, to crash by an end user. As a final
challenge, see if you can crash it. There is
one way I have thought of - if you read the
section on human error carefully, you
might know what it is.
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This page was last edited on 16 April 2020, at

06:54. •
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