Question

If exceptions are always fatal, making use of them in Python is easy

# moduleB.py
import moduleC

But evaluating an exception requires more than just it’s type, we often need to determine where an exception came from

# moduleA.py
try:
   import moduleB
except ImportError as e:
    print e
    if str(e) == "No module named moduleB":
        pass
    else:
        raise

In some projects this pattern results in a lot of code that is not easy to read. Is this the best way to ensure that I’m catching a local exception? I would like to be able write

import moduleB else pass

Answer 1

Sorry, but the example you posted is the canonical Way Of Doing It. Python doesn’t have any syntax for catching the exception raised by the import statement but not by something below it.

Just a small warning, though: str(e) can cause unicode errors if e‘s message is unicode. You can fix that by using repr(e).