23.6. The raise statement: Cause an exception

Python 2.7 quick reference

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23.6. The raise statement: Cause an exception

Python's exception mechanism is the universal framework for dealing with errors—situations where your program can't really proceed normally. For an overview, see Section 25, “Exceptions: Error signaling and handling”.

There are three forms of the raise statement:

raiseraise E1raise E1, E2

The first form is equivalent to “raise None,None” and the second form is equivalent to “raise E1, None”. Each form raises an exception of a given type and with a given value. The type and value depend on how many expressions you provide:

E1	E2	Exception type	Exception value
None	None	Re-raise the current exception, if any. This might be done, for example, inside an except, else, or finally block; see Section 23.8, “The try statement: Anticipate exceptions”.
class	None	E1	E1()
class	instance of E1	E1	E2
class	tuple	E1	E1(*E2)
class	none of the above	E1	E1(E2)
instance	None	type(E1)	E1

The current recommended practice is to use a raise statement of this form:

raise E(...)

where E is some class derived from the built-in Exception class: you can use one of the built-in exceptions, or you can create your own exception classes.

For classes derived from Exception, the constructor takes one argument, an error message—that is, a string explaining why the exception was raised. The resulting instance makes that message available as an attribute named .message. Example:

>>> try:...     raise ValueError('The day is too frabjous.')... except ValueError as x:...     pass... >>> type(x)<type 'exceptions.ValueError'>>>> x.message'The day is too frabjous.'

To create your own exceptions, write a class that inherits from Exception and passes its argument to the parent constructor, as in this example.

>>> class VocationError(Exception):...     def __init__(self, mismatch):...         Exception.__init__(self, mismatch)... >>> try:...     print "And now, the Vocational Guidance Counsellor Sketch."...     raise VocationError("Does not have proper hat")...     print "This print statement will not be reached."... except VocationError as problem:...     print "Vocation problem: {0}".format(problem)... And now, the Vocational Guidance Counsellor Sketch.Vocation problem: Does not have proper hat