Related
On executing below code I get below error if it fails to get firefox profile/webdriver for some reason:
exceptions must be old-style classes or derived from BaseException, not NoneType
I want to understand why this error is displayed in this case:
self.error = 0
self.profile, profileErrStatus = self.GetFireFoxProfile(path)
if self.profile:
self.driver, driverErrStatus = self.GetFireFoxWebDriver(self.profile)
if self.driver:
else:
print('Failed to get Firefox Webdriver:%s'%(str(sys.exc_info()[0])))
raise
else:
print('Failed to get Firefox Profile:%s'%(str(sys.exc_info()[0])))
raise
This is because you are using raise without providing an exception type or instance.
According to the documentation:
The sole argument to raise indicates the exception to be raised. This
must be either an exception instance or an exception class (a class
that derives from Exception).
Demo:
>>> raise
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: exceptions must be old-style classes or derived from BaseException, not NoneType
>>> raise ValueError('Failed to get Firefox Webdriver')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Failed to get Firefox Webdriver
Note that raise without arguments can be used inside an except block to re-raise an exception.
FYI, on python3, it would raise a RuntimeError instead:
>>> raise
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
RuntimeError: No active exception to reraise
Note that raise without an argument is allowed if you are in a catch block with an exception currently handled:
If you need to determine whether an exception was raised but don’t intend to handle it, a simpler form of the raise statement allows you to re-raise the exception:
>>> try:
... raise NameError('HiThere')
... except NameError:
... print 'An exception flew by!'
... raise
...
An exception flew by!
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 2, in ?
NameError: HiThere
(From Raising Exceptions in the documentation.)
Beware, though, that if a method called in the expect block clears the exception info, raise without an argument will result in the exceptions must be… exception again. So explicitly assigning the exception to a variable with except … as is safer:
try:
raise NameError('HiThere')
except NameError as e:
log_and_clear_exception_info('An exception flew by!')
raise e
What's the difference between raise and raise from in Python?
try:
raise ValueError
except Exception as e:
raise IndexError
which yields
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tmp.py", line 2, in <module>
raise ValueError
ValueError
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tmp.py", line 4, in <module>
raise IndexError
IndexError
and
try:
raise ValueError
except Exception as e:
raise IndexError from e
which yields
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tmp.py", line 2, in <module>
raise ValueError
ValueError
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tmp.py", line 4, in <module>
raise IndexError from e
IndexError
The difference is that when you use from, the __cause__ attribute is set and the message states that the exception was directly caused by. If you omit the from then no __cause__ is set, but the __context__ attribute may be set as well, and the traceback then shows the context as during handling something else happened.
Setting the __context__ happens if you used raise in an exception handler; if you used raise anywhere else no __context__ is set either.
If a __cause__ is set, a __suppress_context__ = True flag is also set on the exception; when __suppress_context__ is set to True, the __context__ is ignored when printing a traceback.
When raising from a exception handler where you don't want to show the context (don't want a during handling another exception happened message), then use raise ... from None to set __suppress_context__ to True.
In other words, Python sets a context on exceptions so you can introspect where an exception was raised, letting you see if another exception was replaced by it. You can also add a cause to an exception, making the traceback explicit about the other exception (use different wording), and the context is ignored (but can still be introspected when debugging). Using raise ... from None lets you suppress the context being printed.
See the raise statement documenation:
The from clause is used for exception chaining: if given, the second expression must be another exception class or instance, which will then be attached to the raised exception as the __cause__ attribute (which is writable). If the raised exception is not handled, both exceptions will be printed:
>>> try:
... print(1 / 0)
... except Exception as exc:
... raise RuntimeError("Something bad happened") from exc
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: int division or modulo by zero
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
RuntimeError: Something bad happened
A similar mechanism works implicitly if an exception is raised inside an exception handler or a finally clause: the previous exception is then attached as the new exception’s __context__ attribute:
>>> try:
... print(1 / 0)
... except:
... raise RuntimeError("Something bad happened")
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: int division or modulo by zero
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
RuntimeError: Something bad happened
Also see the Built-in Exceptions documentation for details on the context and cause information attached to exceptions.
PEP 3134, Exception Chaining and Embedded Tracebacks introduced chaining of exceptions (implicitly chained with explicit raise EXCEPTION or implicit raise, and explicitly chained with explicit raise EXCEPTION from CAUSE). Here are the relevant paragraphs to understand their usage:
Motivation
During the handling of one exception (exception A), it is possible that another exception (exception B) may occur. In today’s Python (version 2.4), if this happens, exception B is propagated outward and exception A is lost. In order to debug the problem, it is useful to know about both exceptions. The __context__ attribute retains this information automatically.
Sometimes it can be useful for an exception handler to intentionally re-raise an exception, either to provide extra information or to translate an exception to another type. The __cause__ attribute provides an explicit way to record the direct cause of an exception.
[…]
Implicit Exception Chaining
Here is an example to illustrate the __context__ attribute:
def compute(a, b):
try:
a/b
except Exception, exc:
log(exc)
def log(exc):
file = open('logfile.txt') # oops, forgot the 'w'
print >>file, exc
file.close()
Calling compute(0, 0) causes a ZeroDivisionError. The compute() function catches this exception and calls log(exc), but the log() function also raises an exception when it tries to write to a file that wasn’t opened for writing.
In today’s Python, the caller of compute() gets thrown an IOError. The ZeroDivisionError is lost. With the proposed change, the instance of IOError has an additional __context__ attribute that retains the ZeroDivisionError.
[…]
Explicit Exception Chaining
The __cause__ attribute on exception objects is always initialized to None. It is set by a new form of the raise statement:
raise EXCEPTION from CAUSE
which is equivalent to:
exc = EXCEPTION
exc.__cause__ = CAUSE
raise exc
In the following example, a database provides implementations for a few different kinds of storage, with file storage as one kind. The database designer wants errors to propagate as DatabaseError objects so that the client doesn’t have to be aware of the storage-specific details, but doesn’t want to lose the underlying error information.
class DatabaseError(Exception):
pass
class FileDatabase(Database):
def __init__(self, filename):
try:
self.file = open(filename)
except IOError, exc:
raise DatabaseError('failed to open') from exc
If the call to open() raises an exception, the problem will be reported as a DatabaseError, with a __cause__ attribute that reveals the IOError as the original cause.
Enhanced Reporting
The default exception handler will be modified to report chained exceptions. The chain of exceptions is traversed by following the __cause__ and __context__ attributes, with __cause__ taking priority. In keeping with the chronological order of tracebacks, the most recently raised exception is displayed last; that is, the display begins with the description of the innermost exception and backs up the chain to the outermost exception. The tracebacks are formatted as usual, with one of the lines:
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
or
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
between tracebacks, depending whether they are linked by __cause__ or __context__ respectively. Here is a sketch of the procedure:
def print_chain(exc):
if exc.__cause__:
print_chain(exc.__cause__)
print '\nThe above exception was the direct cause...'
elif exc.__context__:
print_chain(exc.__context__)
print '\nDuring handling of the above exception, ...'
print_exc(exc)
[…]
PEP 415, Implement Context Suppression with Exception Attributes then introduced suppression of exception contexts (with explicit raise EXCEPTION from None). Here is the relevant paragraph to understand its usage:
Proposal
A new attribute on BaseException, __suppress_context__, will be introduced. Whenever __cause__ is set, __suppress_context__ will be set to True. In particular, raise exc from cause syntax will set exc.__suppress_context__ to True. Exception printing code will check for that attribute to determine whether context and cause will be printed. __cause__ will return to its original purpose and values.
There is precedence for __suppress_context__ with the print_line_and_file exception attribute.
To summarize, raise exc from cause will be equivalent to:
exc.__cause__ = cause
raise exc
where exc.__cause__ = cause implicitly sets exc.__suppress_context__.
So in PEP 415, the sketch of the procedure given in PEP 3134 becomes the following:
def print_chain(exc):
if exc.__cause__:
print_chain(exc.__cause__)
print '\nThe above exception was the direct cause...'
elif exc.__context__ and not exc.__suppress_context__:
print_chain(exc.__context__)
print '\nDuring handling of the above exception, ...'
print_exc(exc)
The shortest answer. PEP-3134 says it all. raise Exception from e sets the __cause__ filed of the new exception.
A longer answer from the same PEP:
__context__ field would be set implicitly to the original error inside except: block unless told not to with __suppress_context__ = True.
__cause__ is just like context but has to be set explicitly by using from syntax
traceback will always chain when you call raise inside an except block. You can get rid of traceback by a) swallowing an exception except: pass or by messing with sys.exc_info() directly.
The long answer
import traceback
import sys
class CustomError(Exception):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__("custom")
def print_exception(func):
print(f"\n\n\nEXECURTING FUNCTION '{func.__name__}' \n")
try:
func()
except Exception as e:
"Here is result of our actions:"
print(f"\tException type: '{type(e)}'")
print(f"\tException message: '{e}'")
print(f"\tException context: '{e.__context__}'")
print(f"\tContext type: '{type(e.__context__)}'")
print(f"\tException cause: '{e.__cause__}'")
print(f"\tCause type: '{type(e.__cause__)}'")
print("\nTRACEBACKSTART>>>")
traceback.print_exc()
print("<<<TRACEBACKEND")
def original_error_emitter():
x = {}
print(x.does_not_exist)
def vanilla_catch_swallow():
"""Nothing is expected to happen"""
try:
original_error_emitter()
except Exception as e:
pass
def vanilla_catch_reraise():
"""Nothing is expected to happen"""
try:
original_error_emitter()
except Exception as e:
raise e
def catch_replace():
"""Nothing is expected to happen"""
try:
original_error_emitter()
except Exception as e:
raise CustomError()
def catch_replace_with_from():
"""Nothing is expected to happen"""
try:
original_error_emitter()
except Exception as e:
raise CustomError() from e
def catch_reset_trace():
saw_an_error = False
try:
original_error_emitter()
except Exception as e:
saw_an_error = True
if saw_an_error:
raise CustomError()
print("Note: This will print nothing")
print_exception(vanilla_catch_swallow)
print("Note: This will print AttributeError and 1 stack trace")
print_exception(vanilla_catch_reraise)
print("Note: This will print CustomError with no context but 2 stack traces")
print_exception(catch_replace)
print("Note: This will print CustomError with AttributeError context and 2 stack traces")
print_exception(catch_replace_with_from)
print("Note: This will brake traceback chain")
print_exception(catch_reset_trace)
Will result in the following output:
Note: This will print nothing
EXECURTING FUNCTION 'vanilla_catch_swallow'
Note: This will print AttributeError and 1 stack trace
EXECURTING FUNCTION 'vanilla_catch_reraise'
Exception type: '<class 'AttributeError'>'
Exception message: ''dict' object has no attribute 'does_not_exist''
Exception context: 'None'
Context type: '<class 'NoneType'>'
Exception cause: 'None'
Cause type: '<class 'NoneType'>'
TRACEBACKSTART>>>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 11, in print_exception
func()
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 41, in vanilla_catch_reraise
raise e
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 39, in vanilla_catch_reraise
original_error_emitter()
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 27, in original_error_emitter
print(x.does_not_exist)
AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'does_not_exist'
<<<TRACEBACKEND
Note: This will print CustomError with no context but 2 stack traces
EXECURTING FUNCTION 'catch_replace'
Exception type: '<class '__main__.CustomError'>'
Exception message: 'custom'
Exception context: ''dict' object has no attribute 'does_not_exist''
Context type: '<class 'AttributeError'>'
Exception cause: 'None'
Cause type: '<class 'NoneType'>'
TRACEBACKSTART>>>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 46, in catch_replace
original_error_emitter()
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 27, in original_error_emitter
print(x.does_not_exist)
AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'does_not_exist'
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 11, in print_exception
func()
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 48, in catch_replace
raise CustomError()
CustomError: custom
<<<TRACEBACKEND
Note: This will print CustomError with AttributeError context and 2 stack traces
EXECURTING FUNCTION 'catch_replace_with_from'
Exception type: '<class '__main__.CustomError'>'
Exception message: 'custom'
Exception context: ''dict' object has no attribute 'does_not_exist''
Context type: '<class 'AttributeError'>'
Exception cause: ''dict' object has no attribute 'does_not_exist''
Cause type: '<class 'AttributeError'>'
TRACEBACKSTART>>>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 53, in catch_replace_with_from
original_error_emitter()
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 27, in original_error_emitter
print(x.does_not_exist)
AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'does_not_exist'
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 11, in print_exception
func()
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 55, in catch_replace_with_from
raise CustomError() from e
CustomError: custom
<<<TRACEBACKEND
Note: This will brake traceback chain
EXECURTING FUNCTION 'catch_reset_trace'
Exception type: '<class '__main__.CustomError'>'
Exception message: 'custom'
Exception context: 'None'
Context type: '<class 'NoneType'>'
Exception cause: 'None'
Cause type: '<class 'NoneType'>'
TRACEBACKSTART>>>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 11, in print_exception
func()
File "/Users/eugene.selivonchyk/repo/experiments/exceptions.py", line 64, in catch_reset_trace
raise CustomError()
CustomError: custom
<<<TRACEBACKEND
This question already has answers here:
"Inner exception" (with traceback) in Python?
(9 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
Is there a standard way of using exception chains in Python? Like the Java exception 'caused by'?
Here is some background.
I have a module with one main exception class DSError:
class DSError(Exception):
pass
Somewhere within this module there will be:
try:
v = my_dict[k]
something(v)
except KeyError as e:
raise DSError("no key %s found for %s" % (k, self))
except ValueError as e:
raise DSError("Bad Value %s found for %s" % (v, self))
except DSError as e:
raise DSError("%s raised in %s" % (e, self))
Basically this snippet should throw only DSError and tell me what happened and why. The thing is that the try block might throw lots of other exceptions, so I'd prefer if I can do something like:
try:
v = my_dict[k]
something(v)
except Exception as e:
raise DSError(self, v, e) # Exception chained...
Is this standard pythonic way? I did not see exception chains in other modules so how is that done in Python?
Exception chaining is only available in Python 3, where you can write:
try:
v = {}['a']
except KeyError as e:
raise ValueError('failed') from e
which yields an output like
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "t.py", line 2, in <module>
v = {}['a']
KeyError: 'a'
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "t.py", line 4, in <module>
raise ValueError('failed') from e
ValueError: failed
In most cases, you don't even need the from; Python 3 will by default show all exceptions that occured during exception handling, like this:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "t.py", line 2, in <module>
v = {}['a']
KeyError: 'a'
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "t.py", line 4, in <module>
raise ValueError('failed')
ValueError: failed
What you can do in Python 2 is adding custom attributes to your exception class, like:
class MyError(Exception):
def __init__(self, message, cause):
super(MyError, self).__init__(message + u', caused by ' + repr(cause))
self.cause = cause
try:
v = {}['a']
except KeyError as e:
raise MyError('failed', e)
Is this what you're asking for?
class MyError(Exception):
def __init__(self, other):
super(MyError, self).__init__(other.message)
>>> try:
... 1/0
... except Exception, e:
... raise MyError(e)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#27>", line 4, in <module>
raise MyError(e)
MyError: division by zero
If you want to store the original exception object, you can certainly do so in your own exception class's __init__. You might actually want to store the traceback as the exception object itself doesn't provide much useful information about where the exception occurred:
class MyError(Exception):
def __init__(self, other):
self.traceback = sys.exc_info()
super(MyError, self).__init__(other.message)
After this you can access the traceback attribute of your exception to get info about the original exception. (Python 3 already provides this as the __traceback__ attribute of an exception object.)
I have this try block in my code:
try:
do_something_that_might_raise_an_exception()
except ValueError as err:
errmsg = 'My custom error message.'
raise ValueError(errmsg)
Strictly speaking, I am actually raising another ValueError, not the ValueError thrown by do_something...(), which is referred to as err in this case. How do I attach a custom message to err? I try the following code but fails due to err, a ValueError instance, not being callable:
try:
do_something_that_might_raise_an_exception()
except ValueError as err:
errmsg = 'My custom error message.'
raise err(errmsg)
If you're lucky enough to only support python 3.x, this really becomes a thing of beauty :)
raise from
We can chain the exceptions using raise from.
try:
1 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
raise Exception('Smelly socks') from e
In this case, the exception your caller would catch has the line number of the place where we raise our exception.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 2, in <module>
1 / 0
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 4, in <module>
raise Exception('Smelly socks') from e
Exception: Smelly socks
Notice the bottom exception only has the stacktrace from where we raised our exception. Your caller could still get the original exception by accessing the __cause__ attribute of the exception they catch.
with_traceback
Or you can use with_traceback.
try:
1 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
raise Exception('Smelly socks').with_traceback(e.__traceback__)
Using this form, the exception your caller would catch has the traceback from where the original error occurred.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 2, in <module>
1 / 0
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 4, in <module>
raise Exception('Smelly socks').with_traceback(e.__traceback__)
File "test.py", line 2, in <module>
1 / 0
Exception: Smelly socks
Notice the bottom exception has the line where we performed the invalid division as well as the line where we reraise the exception.
Update: For Python 3, check Ben's answer
To attach a message to the current exception and re-raise it:
(the outer try/except is just to show the effect)
For python 2.x where x>=6:
try:
try:
raise ValueError # something bad...
except ValueError as err:
err.message=err.message+" hello"
raise # re-raise current exception
except ValueError as e:
print(" got error of type "+ str(type(e))+" with message " +e.message)
This will also do the right thing if err is derived from ValueError. For example UnicodeDecodeError.
Note that you can add whatever you like to err. For example err.problematic_array=[1,2,3].
Edit: #Ducan points in a comment the above does not work with python 3 since .message is not a member of ValueError. Instead you could use this (valid python 2.6 or later or 3.x):
try:
try:
raise ValueError
except ValueError as err:
if not err.args:
err.args=('',)
err.args = err.args + ("hello",)
raise
except ValueError as e:
print(" error was "+ str(type(e))+str(e.args))
Edit2:
Depending on what the purpose is, you can also opt for adding the extra information under your own variable name. For both python2 and python3:
try:
try:
raise ValueError
except ValueError as err:
err.extra_info = "hello"
raise
except ValueError as e:
print(" error was "+ str(type(e))+str(e))
if 'extra_info' in dir(e):
print e.extra_info
It seems all the answers are adding info to e.args[0], thereby altering the existing error message. Is there a downside to extending the args tuple instead? I think the possible upside is, you can leave the original error message alone for cases where parsing that string is needed; and you could add multiple elements to the tuple if your custom error handling produced several messages or error codes, for cases where the traceback would be parsed programmatically (like via a system monitoring tool).
## Approach #1, if the exception may not be derived from Exception and well-behaved:
def to_int(x):
try:
return int(x)
except Exception as e:
e.args = (e.args if e.args else tuple()) + ('Custom message',)
raise
>>> to_int('12')
12
>>> to_int('12 monkeys')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 3, in to_int
ValueError: ("invalid literal for int() with base 10: '12 monkeys'", 'Custom message')
or
## Approach #2, if the exception is always derived from Exception and well-behaved:
def to_int(x):
try:
return int(x)
except Exception as e:
e.args += ('Custom message',)
raise
>>> to_int('12')
12
>>> to_int('12 monkeys')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 3, in to_int
ValueError: ("invalid literal for int() with base 10: '12 monkeys'", 'Custom message')
Can you see a downside to this approach?
This only works with Python 3. You can modify the exception's original arguments and add your own arguments.
An exception remembers the args it was created with. I presume this is so that you can modify the exception.
In the function reraise we prepend the exception's original arguments with any new arguments that we want (like a message). Finally we re-raise the exception while preserving the trace-back history.
def reraise(e, *args):
'''re-raise an exception with extra arguments
:param e: The exception to reraise
:param args: Extra args to add to the exception
'''
# e.args is a tuple of arguments that the exception with instantiated with.
#
e.args = args + e.args
# Recreate the exception and preserve the traceback info so that we can see
# where this exception originated.
#
raise e.with_traceback(e.__traceback__)
def bad():
raise ValueError('bad')
def very():
try:
bad()
except Exception as e:
reraise(e, 'very')
def very_very():
try:
very()
except Exception as e:
reraise(e, 'very')
very_very()
output
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 35, in <module>
very_very()
File "main.py", line 30, in very_very
reraise(e, 'very')
File "main.py", line 15, in reraise
raise e.with_traceback(e.__traceback__)
File "main.py", line 28, in very_very
very()
File "main.py", line 24, in very
reraise(e, 'very')
File "main.py", line 15, in reraise
raise e.with_traceback(e.__traceback__)
File "main.py", line 22, in very
bad()
File "main.py", line 18, in bad
raise ValueError('bad')
ValueError: ('very', 'very', 'bad')
try:
try:
int('a')
except ValueError as e:
raise ValueError('There is a problem: {0}'.format(e))
except ValueError as err:
print err
prints:
There is a problem: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'a'
This code template should allow you to raise an exception with a custom message.
try:
raise ValueError
except ValueError as err:
raise type(err)("my message")
This is the function I use to modify the exception message in Python 2.7 and 3.x while preserving the original traceback. It requires six
def reraise_modify(caught_exc, append_msg, prepend=False):
"""Append message to exception while preserving attributes.
Preserves exception class, and exception traceback.
Note:
This function needs to be called inside an except because
`sys.exc_info()` requires the exception context.
Args:
caught_exc(Exception): The caught exception object
append_msg(str): The message to append to the caught exception
prepend(bool): If True prepend the message to args instead of appending
Returns:
None
Side Effects:
Re-raises the exception with the preserved data / trace but
modified message
"""
ExceptClass = type(caught_exc)
# Keep old traceback
traceback = sys.exc_info()[2]
if not caught_exc.args:
# If no args, create our own tuple
arg_list = [append_msg]
else:
# Take the last arg
# If it is a string
# append your message.
# Otherwise append it to the
# arg list(Not as pretty)
arg_list = list(caught_exc.args[:-1])
last_arg = caught_exc.args[-1]
if isinstance(last_arg, str):
if prepend:
arg_list.append(append_msg + last_arg)
else:
arg_list.append(last_arg + append_msg)
else:
arg_list += [last_arg, append_msg]
caught_exc.args = tuple(arg_list)
six.reraise(ExceptClass,
caught_exc,
traceback)
Either raise the new exception with your error message using
raise Exception('your error message')
or
raise ValueError('your error message')
within the place where you want to raise it OR attach (replace) error message into current exception using 'from' (Python 3.x supported only):
except ValueError as e:
raise ValueError('your message') from e
Try below:
try:
raise ValueError("Original message. ")
except Exception as err:
message = 'My custom error message. '
# Change the order below to "(message + str(err),)" if custom message is needed first.
err.args = (str(err) + message,)
raise
Output:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ValueError Traceback (most recent call last)
1 try:
----> 2 raise ValueError("Original message")
3 except Exception as err:
4 message = 'My custom error message.'
5 err.args = (str(err) + ". " + message,)
ValueError: Original message. My custom error message.
The current answer did not work good for me, if the exception is not re-caught the appended message is not shown.
But doing like below both keeps the trace and shows the appended message regardless if the exception is re-caught or not.
try:
raise ValueError("Original message")
except ValueError as err:
t, v, tb = sys.exc_info()
raise t, ValueError(err.message + " Appended Info"), tb
( I used Python 2.7, have not tried it in Python 3 )
Python 3 built-in exceptions have the strerror field:
except ValueError as err:
err.strerror = "New error message"
raise err
None of the above solutions did exactly what I wanted, which was to add some information to the first part of the error message i.e. I wanted my users to see my custom message first.
This worked for me:
exception_raised = False
try:
do_something_that_might_raise_an_exception()
except ValueError as e:
message = str(e)
exception_raised = True
if exception_raised:
message_to_prepend = "Custom text"
raise ValueError(message_to_prepend + message)
Python 3.11+
PEP 678 – Enriching Exceptions with Notes was accepted and landed in Python 3.11. New APIs allow users to attach custom message(s) to existing errors. This is useful for adding additional context when an error is encountered.
Using the add_note method is suitable for answering the original question:
try:
int("eleven")
except ValueError as e:
errmsg = "My custom error message."
e.add_note(errmsg)
raise
It would render like this:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/tmp/example.py", line 2, in <module>
int("eleven")
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'eleven'
My custom error message.
Python < 3.11
Modifying the args attribute, which is used by BaseException.__str__ to render an exception, is the only way. You could either extend the args:
try:
int("eleven")
except ValueError as e:
errmsg = "My custom error message."
e.args += (errmsg,)
raise e
Which will render as:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/tmp/example.py", line 2, in <module>
int("eleven")
ValueError: ("invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'eleven'", 'My custom error message.')
Or you could replace the args[0], which is a little more complicated but produces a cleaner result.
try:
int("eleven")
except ValueError as e:
errmsg = "My custom error message."
args = e.args
if not args:
arg0 = errmsg
else:
arg0 = f"{args[0]}\n{errmsg}"
e.args = (arg0,) + args[1:]
raise
This will render the same way as the Python 3.11+ exception __notes__ do:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/tmp/example.py", line 2, in <module>
int("eleven")
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'eleven'
My custom error message.
I tried this compact version of #RobinL, and worked as well:
try:
do_something_that_might_raise_an_exception()
except ValueError as e:
raise ValueError(f'Custom text {e}')
Raising same error, with prepending custom text message in front.
(edit - sorry, actually same as https://stackoverflow.com/a/65494175/15229310 , why there is like 10 (upvoted) 'solutions' that simply don't answer question as posted?)
try:
<code causing exception>
except Exception as e:
e.args = (f"My custom text. Original Exception text: {'-'.join(e.args)}",)
raise
Many of proposed solutions above re-raising an exception again, which is considered as a bad practice. Something simple like this will do the job
try:
import settings
except ModuleNotFoundError:
print("Something meaningfull\n")
raise
So You'll print the error message first, and then raise the stack trace, or you can simply exit by sys.exit(1) and not show the error message at all.
if you want to custom the error type, a simple thing you can do is to define an error class based on ValueError.
This question already has answers here:
How do I raise the same Exception with a custom message in Python?
(17 answers)
Why doesn't it work to append information in the exception message?
(2 answers)
Closed 2 days ago.
I want to achieve something like this:
def foo():
try:
raise IOError('Stuff ')
except:
raise
def bar(arg1):
try:
foo()
except Exception as e:
e.message = e.message + 'happens at %s' % arg1
raise
bar('arg1')
Traceback...
IOError('Stuff Happens at arg1')
But what I get is:
Traceback..
IOError('Stuff')
Any clues as to how to achieve this? How to do it both in Python 2 and 3?
In case you came here searching for a solution for Python 3 the manual says:
When raising a new exception (rather than using a bare raise to re-raise the exception currently being handled), the implicit exception context can be supplemented with an explicit cause by using from with raise:
raise new_exc from original_exc
Example:
try:
return [permission() for permission in self.permission_classes]
except TypeError as e:
raise TypeError("Make sure your view's 'permission_classes' are iterable. "
"If you use '()' to generate a set with a single element "
"make sure that there is a comma behind the one (element,).") from e
Which looks like this in the end:
2017-09-06 16:50:14,797 [ERROR] django.request: Internal Server Error: /v1/sendEmail/
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/rest_framework/views.py", line 275, in get_permissions
return [permission() for permission in self.permission_classes]
TypeError: 'type' object is not iterable
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
# Traceback removed...
TypeError: Make sure your view's Permission_classes are iterable. If
you use parens () to generate a set with a single element make
sure that there is a (comma,) behind the one element.
Turning a totally nondescript TypeError into a nice message with hints towards a solution without messing up the original Exception.
I'd do it like this so changing its type in foo() won't require also changing it in bar().
def foo():
try:
raise IOError('Stuff')
except:
raise
def bar(arg1):
try:
foo()
except Exception as e:
raise type(e)(e.message + ' happens at %s' % arg1)
bar('arg1')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 13, in <module>
bar('arg1')
File "test.py", line 11, in bar
raise type(e)(e.message + ' happens at %s' % arg1)
IOError: Stuff happens at arg1
Update 1
Here's a slight modification that preserves the original traceback:
...
def bar(arg1):
try:
foo()
except Exception as e:
import sys
raise type(e), type(e)(e.message +
' happens at %s' % arg1), sys.exc_info()[2]
bar('arg1')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 16, in <module>
bar('arg1')
File "test.py", line 11, in bar
foo()
File "test.py", line 5, in foo
raise IOError('Stuff')
IOError: Stuff happens at arg1
Update 2
For Python 3.x, the code in my first update is syntactically incorrect plus the idea of having a message attribute on BaseException was retracted in a change to PEP 352 on 2012-05-16 (my first update was posted on 2012-03-12). So currently, in Python 3.5.2 anyway, you'd need to do something along these lines to preserve the traceback and not hardcode the type of exception in function bar(). Also note that there will be the line:
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
in the traceback messages displayed.
# for Python 3.x
...
def bar(arg1):
try:
foo()
except Exception as e:
import sys
raise type(e)(str(e) +
' happens at %s' % arg1).with_traceback(sys.exc_info()[2])
bar('arg1')
Update 3
A commenter asked if there was a way that would work in both Python 2 and 3. Although the answer might seem to be "No" due to the syntax differences, there is a way around that by using a helper function like reraise() in the six add-on module. So, if you'd rather not use the library for some reason, below is a simplified standalone version.
Note too, that since the exception is reraised within the reraise() function, that will appear in whatever traceback is raised, but the final result is what you want.
import sys
if sys.version_info.major < 3: # Python 2?
# Using exec avoids a SyntaxError in Python 3.
exec("""def reraise(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback=None):
raise exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback""")
else:
def reraise(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback=None):
if exc_value is None:
exc_value = exc_type()
if exc_value.__traceback__ is not exc_traceback:
raise exc_value.with_traceback(exc_traceback)
raise exc_value
def foo():
try:
raise IOError('Stuff')
except:
raise
def bar(arg1):
try:
foo()
except Exception as e:
reraise(type(e), type(e)(str(e) +
' happens at %s' % arg1), sys.exc_info()[2])
bar('arg1')
Assuming you don't want to or can't modify foo(), you can do this:
try:
raise IOError('stuff')
except Exception as e:
if len(e.args) >= 1:
e.args = (e.args[0] + ' happens',) + e.args[1:]
raise
This is indeed the only solution here that solves the problem in Python 3 without an ugly and confusing "During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred" message.
In case the re-raising line should be added to the stack trace, writing raise e instead of raise will do the trick.
I don't like all the given answers so far. They are still too verbose imho. In either code and message output.
All i want to have is the stacktrace pointing to the source exception, no exception stuff in between, so no creation of new exceptions, just re-raising the original with all the relevant stack frame states in it, that led there.
Steve Howard gave a nice answer which i want to extend, no, reduce ... to python 3 only.
except Exception as e:
e.args = ("Some failure state", *e.args)
raise
The only new thing is the parameter expansion/unpacking which makes it small and easy enough for me to use.
Try it:
foo = None
try:
try:
state = "bar"
foo.append(state)
except Exception as e:
e.args = ("Appending '"+state+"' failed", *e.args)
raise
print(foo[0]) # would raise too
except Exception as e:
e.args = ("print(foo) failed: " + str(foo), *e.args)
raise
This will give you:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 6, in <module>
foo.append(state)
AttributeError: ('print(foo) failed: None', "Appending 'bar' failed", "'NoneType' object has no attribute 'append'")
A simple pretty-print could be something like
print("\n".join( "-"*i+" "+j for i,j in enumerate(e.args)))
With PEP 678 (Python 3.11) adding notes to exceptions is natively supported:
try:
raise TypeError('bad type')
except Exception as e:
e.add_note('Add some information')
raise
Rendered as:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
TypeError: bad type
Add some information
I was hopping it could replace Steve Howard solution, Unfortunately, it does not give user any control on how to format the final exception (e.g. can't add a note before the exception like: 'Error in fn: {original_exc}')
If you want more control on the traceback, you can use https://github.com/google/etils:
from etils import epy
with epy.maybe_reraise('Error in fn: '):
fn()
Or:
try:
fn()
except Exception as e:
epy.reraise(e, suffix='. Did you mean y ?')
One handy approach that I used is to use class attribute as storage for details, as class attribute is accessible both from class object and class instance:
class CustomError(Exception):
def __init__(self, details: Dict):
self.details = details
Then in your code:
raise CustomError({'data': 5})
And when catching an error:
except CustomError as e:
# Do whatever you want with the exception instance
print(e.details)
I will provide a snippet of code that I use often whenever I want to add extra info to an exception. I works both in Python 2.7 and 3.6.
import sys
import traceback
try:
a = 1
b = 1j
# The line below raises an exception because
# we cannot compare int to complex.
m = max(a, b)
except Exception as ex:
# I create my informational message for debugging:
msg = "a=%r, b=%r" % (a, b)
# Gather the information from the original exception:
exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback = sys.exc_info()
# Format the original exception for a nice printout:
traceback_string = ''.join(traceback.format_exception(
exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback))
# Re-raise a new exception of the same class as the original one,
# using my custom message and the original traceback:
raise type(ex)("%s\n\nORIGINAL TRACEBACK:\n\n%s\n" % (msg, traceback_string))
The code above results in the following output:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-6-09b74752c60d> in <module>()
14 raise type(ex)(
15 "%s\n\nORIGINAL TRACEBACK:\n\n%s\n" %
---> 16 (msg, traceback_string))
TypeError: a=1, b=1j
ORIGINAL TRACEBACK:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<ipython-input-6-09b74752c60d>", line 7, in <module>
m = max(a, b) # Cannot compare int to complex
TypeError: no ordering relation is defined for complex numbers
I know this deviates a little from the example provided in the question, but nevertheless I hope someone finds it useful.
You can define your own exception that inherits from another and create it's own constructor to set value.
For example:
class MyError(Exception):
def __init__(self, value):
self.value = value
Exception.__init__(self)
def __str__(self):
return repr(self.value)
Unlike previous answers, this works in the face of exceptions with really bad __str__.
It does modify the type however, in order to factor out unhelpful __str__ implementations.
I'd still like to find an additional improvement that doesn't modify the type.
from contextlib import contextmanager
#contextmanager
def helpful_info():
try:
yield
except Exception as e:
class CloneException(Exception): pass
CloneException.__name__ = type(e).__name__
CloneException.__module___ = type(e).__module__
helpful_message = '%s\n\nhelpful info!' % e
import sys
raise CloneException, helpful_message, sys.exc_traceback
class BadException(Exception):
def __str__(self):
return 'wat.'
with helpful_info():
raise BadException('fooooo')
The original traceback and type (name) are preserved.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "re_raise.py", line 20, in <module>
raise BadException('fooooo')
File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/contextlib.py", line 34, in __exit__
self.gen.throw(type, value, traceback)
File "re_raise.py", line 5, in helpful_info
yield
File "re_raise.py", line 20, in <module>
raise BadException('fooooo')
__main__.BadException: wat.
helpful info!
Here's what I use for personal projects (I'm sure there's ample reason not to do this in production code):
try:
#something hazardous
except Exception as e:
insightful_message = "shouldn't have done that"
amended_args = tuple([f'{e.args[0]}\n{insightful_message}', *e.args[1:]])
e.args = amended_args
raise
The code (1) intercepts the error; (2) creates a copy of the error's .args property, which is a tuple that is assumed to include an error message at index 0, achieved using a list comprehension; (3) appends a line break and a custom message to the error message; (4) appends any additional items of .args to the copy using
unpacking; (5) converts the copy to a tuple; and finally (6) replaces .args with the amended copy.
Most of these operations are to circumvent the immutability of the .args tuple.
This is my implementation, to use it as a context manager and optionally add extra message to exception:
from typing import Optional, Type
from types import TracebackType
class _addInfoOnException():
def __init__(self, info: str = ""):
self.info = info
def __enter__(self):
return
def __exit__(self,
exc_type: Optional[Type[BaseException]],
exc_val: BaseException, # Optional, but not None if exc_type is not None
exc_tb: TracebackType): # Optional, but not None if exc_type is not None
if exc_type:
if self.info:
newMsg = f"{self.info}\n\tLow level error: "
if len(exc_val.args) == 0:
exc_val.args = (self.info, )
elif len(exc_val.args) == 1:
exc_val.args = (f"{newMsg}{exc_val.args[0]}", )
elif len(exc_val.args) > 0:
exc_val.args = (f"{newMsg}{exc_val.args[0]}", exc_val.args[1:])
raise
Usage:
def main():
try:
raise Exception("Example exception msg")
except Exception:
traceback.print_exc()
print("\n\n")
try:
with _addInfoOnException():
raise Exception("Example exception msg, no extra info")
except Exception:
traceback.print_exc()
print("\n\n")
try:
with _addInfoOnException("Some extra info!"):
raise Exception("Example exception msg")
except Exception:
traceback.print_exc()
print("\n\n")
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
This would resolve in such traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<...>\VSCodeDevWorkspace\testis.py", line 40, in main
raise Exception("Example exception msg")
Exception: Example exception msg
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<...>\VSCodeDevWorkspace\testis.py", line 47, in main
raise Exception("Example exception msg, no extra info")
File "<...>\VSCodeDevWorkspace\testis.py", line 47, in main
raise Exception("Example exception msg, no extra info")
Exception: Example exception msg, no extra info
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<...>\VSCodeDevWorkspace\testis.py", line 54, in main
raise Exception("Example exception msg")
File "<...>\VSCodeDevWorkspace\testis.py", line 54, in main
raise Exception("Example exception msg")
Exception: Some extra info!
Low level error: Example exception msg
I use in my codes:
try:
a=1
b=0
c=a/b
except:
raise Exception(f"can't divide {a} with {b}")
output:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZeroDivisionError Traceback (most recent call last)
~\AppData\Local\Temp/ipykernel_11708/1469673756.py in <module>
3 b=0
----> 4 c=a/b
5
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Exception Traceback (most recent call last)
~\AppData\Local\Temp/ipykernel_11708/1469673756.py in <module>
5
6 except Exception:
----> 7 raise Exception(f"can't divide {a} with {b}")
Exception: can't divide 1 with 0
Maybe
except Exception as e:
raise IOError(e.message + 'happens at %s'%arg1)