Make python code continue after exception - python

I'm trying to read all files from a folder that matches a certain criteria. My program crashes once I have an exception raised. I am trying to continue even if there's an exception but it still stops executing.
This is what I get after a couple of seconds.
error <type 'exceptions.IOError'>
Here's my code
import os
path = 'Y:\\Files\\'
listing = os.listdir(path)
try:
for infile in listing:
if infile.startswith("ABC"):
fo = open(infile,"r")
for line in fo:
if line.startswith("REVIEW"):
print infile
fo.close()
except:
print "error "+str(IOError)
pass

Put your try/except structure more in-wards. Otherwise when you get an error, it will break all the loops.
Perhaps after the first for-loop, add the try/except. Then if an error is raised, it will continue with the next file.
for infile in listing:
try:
if infile.startswith("ABC"):
fo = open(infile,"r")
for line in fo:
if line.startswith("REVIEW"):
print infile
fo.close()
except:
pass
This is a perfect example of why you should use a with statement here to open files. When you open the file using open(), but an error is catched, the file will remain open forever. Now is better than never.
for infile in listing:
try:
if infile.startswith("ABC"):
with open(infile,"r") as fo
for line in fo:
if line.startswith("REVIEW"):
print infile
except:
pass
Now if an error is caught, the file will be closed, as that is what the with statement does.

Move the try/except inside the for loop.
Like in:
import os
path = 'C:\\'
listing = os.listdir(path)
for infile in listing:
try:
if infile.startswith("ABC"):
fo = open(infile,"r")
for line in fo:
if line.startswith("REVIEW"):
print infile
fo.close()
except:
print "error "+str(IOError)

You're code is doing exactly what you're telling it to do. When you get an exception, it jumps down to this section:
except:
print "error "+str(IOError)
pass
Since there's nothing after that, the program ends.
Also, that pass is superfluous.

As per strictest interpretation of the question "continue even if there's an exception". Python gives us a keyword "finally" which executes a block of code no matter what precedes it. The only issue with this method will run a block of code regardless of the type of error, which might not be desirable for all cases.
try:
unreal = 3/0 # raises divide by zero exception
print(unreal)
# handles zerodivision exception
except :
print("Can't divide by zero, 0 has no multiplicative inverse")
finally:
# this block is always executed
print("Brahmagupta claimed that “zero divided by a zero is zero.”)

Related

How to fix error exception to allow for retries without the exception looping in Python

I'm attempting to write error handling in Python 2.7 for when an IOError exception is raised after a user enters a filename.
I have tried a couple of solutions our there on the internet including:
How to retry after exception?
Get a Try statement to loop around until correct value obtained
This is my original code:
while True:
try:
with open (userFile, 'r') as txtFile:
for curLine in txtFile:
curLine = curLine.rstrip("\n\r")
idList.append(curLine)
except IOError:
print("File does not exist")
Whenever the IOError exception is raised it goes into an infinite loop, printing "File does not exist" over and over again. In the instance where I limit the attempts by adding a range, it goes through that range, printing over and over again and then exits the script. Does anyone have an idea why this keeps looping when the exception is raised?
This will be much easier if you split the separate concerns into functions, i.e. (i) warning the user if a file doesn't exist and (ii) reading the contents of the file into a list of lines:
def read_file(f):
# you can't read a file line-by-line and get line endings that match '\n\r'
# the following will match what your code is trying to do, but perhaps not
# what you want to accomplish..?
return f.read().split("\n\r") # are you sure you haven't switched these..?
def checked_read_file(fname):
try:
with open(fname, 'rb') as fp: # you'll probably need binary mode to read \r
return read_file(fp)
except IOError:
print("File does not exist")
return False
then you can write your while loop:
while True:
result = checked_read_file(user_file)
if result is not False: # this is correct since the empty list is false-y
break
user_file = input("Enter another filename: ") # or user_file = raw_input("...: ") if you're on Python 2
# here result is an array of lines from the file

Occasional IOError writing to file

I am running the following code very often to write to files from Python using the following:
def function():
file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), '../../my_file')
fifo = open(file, 'w')
if (os.path.isfile(file) and os.access(file, os.W_OK)):
fifo.write("stuff")
fifo.close()
else:
time.sleep(1)
function()
Unfortunately, I get the following error (not all the time):
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
This is self-explanatory, but I do not understand then why all the precautions do not work, like isfile or access..W_OK ? How do I avoid having this issue?
Also, the slower the machine, the less often the error is encountered.
See also "LBYL vs EAFP in Java?":
Instead of checking if the action is ok (LBYL), you should do an EAFP approach. Just do what you want to do and check if it has worked correctly.
Besides, better don't call function() recursively, it might lead to a stack overflow if the error persists.
Better do
def function():
file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), '../../my_file')
while True:
try:
with open(file, 'w') as file: # automatically closes...
file.write("some stuff")
except IOError, e:
time.sleep(1)
continue
break # the while loop

Python file copy exception catching

I have a txt file called test.txt with 4 lines in it. I want to copy lines containing the word 'exception' into a new file from command line argument. I have managed this far. But I also want to exception handle this for IO error. That is if from the command line, somebody misspells the word test.txt, it will throw an exception. This is my current code. Please help! I'm a beginner. Presently, if I misspell it intentionally, it is not showing the error message I intend it to show.
import sys
def Cat(filename):
try:
f = open(filename, 'rU')
for line in f:
print (line),
return 3
except IOError:
print('\nIO error!!', filename)
def main():
f1 = open(sys.argv[1])
f2 = open(sys.argv[2], 'w')
for line in f1:
if 'exception' in line:
f2.write(line)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
First check if source file exists and readable -
if not (os.path.exists(file1) and os.access(file1, os.R_OK)):
print "file1 does not exists or not readable"
sys.exit(1)
else:
//good to go
and then handle writing of destination file with try except block.
You need to put the open() inside a try-except block, just as you did in Cat().
Currently, you are not calling Cat(), and the open() in main() is not inside a try-except block.
Since you said you are a beginner in Python I'll assume this a sort of "learning code". So, I won't tell you anything about the design. Also, you should do what #NPE says too.
You can try this in your main function in order to reach your goal:
def main():
filename = open(sys.argv[1])
if filename != "test.txt":
raise Exception("Here goes the message error you want to show")
f2 = open(sys.argv[2], 'w')
for line in f1:
if 'exception' in line:
f2.write(line)
You forgot to call Cat()
before
f2 = open(sys.argv[2], 'w')
Cat(f1)
for line in f1:
and in the Cat function you will need to raise exception to stop the execution
print('\nIO error!!', filename)
raise IOError('Invalid filename')

display an error message when file is empty - proper way?

hi im slowly trying to learn the correct way to write python code. suppose i have a text file which i want to check if empty, what i want to happen is that the program immediately terminates and the console window displays an error message if indeed empty. so far what ive done is written below. please teach me the proper method on how one ought to handle this case:
import os
def main():
f1name = 'f1.txt'
f1Cont = open(f1name,'r')
if not f1Cont:
print '%s is an empty file' %f1name
os.system ('pause')
#other code
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
There is no need to open() the file, just use os.stat().
>>> #create an empty file
>>> f=open('testfile','w')
>>> f.close()
>>> #open the empty file in read mode to prove that it doesn't raise IOError
>>> f=open('testfile','r')
>>> f.close()
>>> #get the size of the file
>>> import os
>>> import stat
>>> os.stat('testfile')[stat.ST_SIZE]
0L
>>>
The pythonic way to do this is:
try:
f = open(f1name, 'r')
except IOError as e:
# you can print the error here, e.g.
print(str(e))
Maybe a duplicate of this.
From the original answer:
import os
if (os.stat(f1name).st_size == 0)
print 'File is empty!'
If file open succeeds the value of 'f1Cont` will be a file object and will not be False (even if the file is empty).One way you can check if the file is empty (after a successful open) is :
if f1Cont.readlines():
print 'File is not empty'
else:
print 'File is empty'
Assuming you are going to read the file if it has data in it, I'd recommend opening it in append-update mode and seeing if the file position is zero. If so, there's no data in the file. Otherwise, we can read it.
with open("filename", "a+") as f:
if f.tell():
f.seek(0)
for line in f: # read the file
print line.rstrip()
else:
print "no data in file"
one can create a custom exception and handle that using a try and except block as below
class ContentNotFoundError(Exception):
pass
with open('your_filename','r') as f:
try:
content=f.read()
if not content:
raise ContentNotFoundError()
except ContentNotFoundError:
print("the file you are trying to open has no contents in it")
else:
print("content found")
print(content)
This code will print the content of the file given if found otherwise will print the message
the file you are trying to open has no contents in it

Python with statement - is there a need for old-style file handling any more?

With having the with statement, is there ever a need to open a file/check for exceptions/do manual closing of resources, like in
try:
f = open('myfile.txt')
for line in f:
print line
except IOError:
print 'Could not open/read file'
finally:
f.close()
Your current code tries to handle the exception of the file not being found, or of insufficient access permissions etc., which a with open(file) as f: block wouldn't have done.
Also, in this case, the finally: block would have raised a NameError since f wouldn't have been defined.
In a with block, any exception (of whatever kind, maybe a division by zero in your code) that occurs within the block will still be raised, but even if you don't handle it, your file will always be closed properly. That's something entirely different.
What you want is probably:
try:
with open("myfile.txt") as f:
do_Stuff() # even if this raises an exception, f will be closed.
except IOError:
print "Couldn't open/read myfile.txt"

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