Question

I have:

try:
   ...
except Exception, e:
   print "Problem. %s" % str(e)

However, somewhere in try, i will need it to behave as if it encountered an Exception. Is it un-pythonic to do:

try:
   ...
   raise Exception, 'Type 1 error'
   ...

except Exception, e:
   print "Problem. Type 2 error %s" % str(e)

Answer 1

I think this is a bad design. If you need to take some action if (and only if) an exception wasn’t raised, that is what the else clause is there for. If you need to take some action unconditionally, that’s what finally is for. here’s a demonstration:

def myraise(arg):
    try:
        if arg:
            raise ValueError('arg is True')
    except ValueError as e:
        print(e)
    else:
        print('arg is False')
    finally:
        print("see this no matter what")

myraise(1)
myraise(0)

You need to factor the unconditional code into finally and put the other stuff in except/else as appropriate.