Question

from django.core.exceptions import FieldError

#This is a method of a class
def _order_item_list(self, item_list, order_items_by, previous_order_by):
    if order_items_by == previous_order_by:
        order_items_by = '-' + order_items_by 

    try:
        result = item_list.order_by(order_items_by)
    except FieldError:
        result = item_list

    return result, order_items_by

Now when I order by valid fields following the generated link,everything works perfect. When I edit a link and add some dummy fieldnames for ordering, it should be catched by this exception and the original list should be returned. But it is not happening, instead I always get a FieldError from django.

FieldError at …

Cannot resolve keyword u’fgsdffds’ into field. Choices are: …

Answer 1

This means there’s a typo, or the exception happens elsewhere. Insert a debug line:

 import pdb; pdb.set_trace()

before the try-except and see how the code is executed. Try PUDB or IPDB debuggers instead of the standard one. Many questions disappear when you have a debugger and can see exactly what goes wrong.