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How to suppress irrelevant errors in a try block

Suppose I want to check that a certain entry is in a Series. I would like to try to access that entry, and if that fails, raise a simple, short ValueError.
For example, I have a series that doesn't have entry C - I want a check to halt the script. Example:
s = {'A': 1, 'B': 2}
s = pd.Series(s)
try:
s['C']
except:
raise ValueError('C is missing.')
But this code throws a long KeyError before spitting out the ValueError. It works, but is verbose.
(I know that I can use an assert statement instaead.)
Why doesn't the try block suppress the KeyError - isn't that part of its purpose? Is there a way to get my intended behavior?

You are seeing exception chaining. This extra information can be suppressed with a from None clause in your raise statement. Consider this (totally contrived) case where I am suppressing a ZeroDivisionError and raising a KeyError:
>>> try:
... 1/0
... except ZeroDivisionError:
... raise KeyError
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
KeyError
But if I use from none:
>>> try:
... 1/0
... except ZeroDivisionError:
... raise KeyError from None
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
KeyError
>>>
Also note, you really should not use a bare except clause. Catch as specific an error as possible.

Catching SyntaxError from ast.literal_eval

I have the following code to evaluate some configuration values stored in a file:
from ast import literal_eval
for key, value in dict_read_from_file.items():
try:
cfg[key] = literal_eval(value)
except ValueError:
cfg[key] = value
However, with certain inputs literal_eval raises a SyntaxError, rather than a ValueError:
>>> literal_eval('asdf')
Traceback (most recent call last):
[...]
ValueError: malformed node or string on line 1: <ast.Name object at 0x000001A065B69AE0>
>>> literal_eval('123 4')
Traceback (most recent call last):
[...]
File "ast.py", line 50, in parse
return compile(source, filename, mode, flags,
File "<unknown>", line 1
123 4
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
But Python doesn't seem to let me catch the SyntaxError:
>>> try:
... literal_eval('123 4')
... except ValueError | SyntaxError:
... print("Fixing")
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
[...]
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 3, in <module>
TypeError: catching classes that do not inherit from BaseException is not allowed
How do I catch and properly handle this SyntaxError?

Test exception chaining and traceback output with doctest

How to test a 'multi traceback' using doctest?
It seems that using several ELLIPSIS and <BLANKLINE> won't do the trick:
def myfunc():
"""
>>> myfunc()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: this is
<BLANKLINE>
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
<BLANKLINE>
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: it
"""
try:
raise ValueError('this is')
except ValueError as err:
raise TypeError('it') from err
import doctest
doctest.testmod(optionflags=doctest.REPORT_NDIFF|doctest.ELLIPSIS)
Result:
"test.py" 23L, 490C written
**********************************************************************
File "test.py", line 4, in __main__.myfunc
Failed example:
myfunc()
Differences (ndiff with -expected +actual):
Traceback (most recent call last):
- ...
+ File "test.py", line 17, in myfunc
+ raise ValueError('this is')
ValueError: this is
<BLANKLINE>
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
<BLANKLINE>
Traceback (most recent call last):
- ...
+ File "/usr/lib/python3.7/doctest.py", line 1329, in __run
+ compileflags, 1), test.globs)
+ File "<doctest __main__.myfunc[0]>", line 1, in <module>
+ myfunc()
+ File "test.py", line 19, in myfunc
+ raise TypeError('it') from err
TypeError: it
**********************************************************************
1 items had failures:
1 of 1 in __main__.myfunc
***Test Failed*** 1 failures.
But if I squash all, it will pass:
>>> myfunc()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: it

I'm afraid that is not possible to check "multi tracebacks" in that way.
The problem is that doctest ignores everything except the exception class and its message.
In your example, it will be just:
TypeError: it
If you are interested in how this works, check the doctest.py and search for
exc_msg = traceback.format_exception_only(*exception[:2])[-1]
That "exc_msg" will only contain the raised exception's details:
TypeError: it
Alternatives
If it is possible, you could change your test to not raise any exception but print the wanted message.
Another possibility could be use another "doctest engine" like byexample. It works in the same way that doctest does but it's more flexible (quick overview here).
If you have a lot of tests, you may want to try its compatibility mode with doctest to avoid rewriting everything.
For your example, this should be:
"""
>>> from your_module import myfunc
"""
def myfunc():
"""
>>> myfunc()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: this is
<BLANKLINE>
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
<BLANKLINE>
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: it
"""
try:
raise ValueError('this is')
except ValueError as err:
raise TypeError('it') from err
And to run it you do from the shell:
byexample -l python -o '+py-doctest -py-pretty-print +ELLIPSIS' your_module.py
Disclaimer: I'm the author of byexample. I'm a really fan of doctest but I know that has its limitations and checking exceptions is one of them (specially if you work in a dual Python 2.x / 3.x project).
For that reason I created byexample: It is really useful to me and I really hope that it would be useful to others.
Ask me any question that you have, here or in github

Python print last traceback only?

Consider the following code and traceback:
>>> try:
... raise KeyboardInterrupt
... except KeyboardInterrupt:
... raise Exception
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
KeyboardInterrupt
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
Exception
>>>
I'd like to print only the most recent traceback (the one in which Exception was raised).
How can this be achieved?
From the above example, I'd like to print the following, as if raise Exception had been called outside the except clause.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
Exception

The perfect question for me.
You can suppress the exception context, that is the first part of the traceback, by explicitly raising the exception from None:
>>> try:
raise KeyboardInterrupt
except:
raise Exception from None
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#4>", line 4, in <module>
raise Exception from None
Exception
This was formalized in PEP 409 and further improved in PEP 415. The original bug request for this was filed by myself btw.
Note that suppressing the context will not actually remove the context from the new exception. So you can still access the original exception:
try:
try:
raise Exception('inner')
except:
raise Exception('outer') from None
except Exception as e:
print(e.__context__) # inner

Custom python traceback or debug output

I have a traceback print and want to customize the last part of it.
What: The error occurred in another process and traceback lies there (as is the case in multiprocessing).
Problem: I want to have the full traceback and error report.
Similar to this code:
>>> def f():
g()
>>> def g():
raise Exception, Exception(), None ## my traceback here
>>> f()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#14>", line 1, in <module>
f()
File "<pyshell#8>", line 2, in f
g()
File "<pyshell#11>", line 2, in g
raise Exception, Exception(), None ## my traceback starts here
my traceback appears here
my traceback appears here
Exception
Impossible "Solutions": subclass and mock-object
>>> from types import *
>>> class CostomTB(TracebackType):
pass
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#125>", line 1, in <module>
class CostomTB(TracebackType):
TypeError: Error when calling the metaclass bases
type 'traceback' is not an acceptable base type
>>> class CostomTB(object):
pass
>>> try: zzzzzzzzz
except NameError:
import sys
ty, err, tb = sys.exc_info()
raise ty, err, CostomTB()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#133>", line 5, in <module>
raise ty, err, CostomTB()
TypeError: raise: arg 3 must be a traceback or None
I am using python 2.7.

I guess you want the full traceback stack. See this which is having very good examples python logging module.
If some confusion comes See the logging documentation.

You mentioned a separate process: if your problem is to capture the traceback in process A and show it in process B, as if the exception was actually raised in the latter, then I'm afraid there is no clean way to do it.
I would suggest to serialize the traceback in process A, send it to process B and from there raise a new exception that includes the former in its description. The result is a somewhat longer output, but it carries information about both processes stacks.
In the following example there aren't really two separate processes, but I hope it makes my point clearer:
import traceback, StringI
def functionInProcessA():
raise Exception('Something happened in A')
class RemoteException(Exception):
def __init__(self, tb):
Exception.__init__(self, "Remote traceback:\n\n%s" % tb)
def controlProcessB():
try:
functionInProcessA()
except:
fd = StringIO.StringIO()
traceback.print_exc(file=fd)
tb = fd.getvalue()
raise RemoteException(tb)
if __name__ == '__main__':
controlProcessB()
Output:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "a.py", line 20, in <module>
controlProcessB()
File "a.py", line 17, in controlProcessB
raise RemoteException(tb)
__main__.RemoteException: Remote traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "a.py", line 12, in controlProcessB
functionInProcessA()
File "a.py", line 4, in functionInProcessA
raise Exception('Something happened in A')
Exception: Something happened in A