[docs] [issue22243] Documentation on try statement incorrectly implies target of except clause can be any assignable expression

[Michael Williamson]

New submission from Michael Williamson:

In the docs for the try statement [1], part of the grammar is:

try1_stmt ::=  "try" ":" suite
               ("except" [expression ["as" target]] ":" suite)+
               ["else" ":" suite]
               ["finally" ":" suite]

The `target` rule allows any assignable expression (identifier, attributes, etc.). However, CPython appears to only allow identifiers as a target. The abstract grammar in the ast module [2] appears to confirm this.

[1] https://docs.python.org/3.4/reference/compound_stmts.html#the-try-statement
[2] https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/ast.html#abstract-grammar

----------
assignee: docs at python
components: Documentation
messages: 225611
nosy: docs at python, mwilliamson
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: Documentation on try statement incorrectly implies target of except clause can be any assignable expression
versions: Python 3.4, Python 3.5

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue22243>
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