[New-bugs-announce] [issue41767] KeyError exception is more difficult to read due to quoting

[Anthony Sottile]

New submission from Anthony Sottile <asottile at umich.edu>:

For example:

>>> import pwd
>>> pwd.getpwnam("test")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: "getpwnam(): name not found: 'test'"


An improvement would be something which doesn't have the extra set of quotes such as:

>>> import pwd
>>> pwd.getpwnam("test")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: getpwnam(): name not found: 'test'



I understand this is due to the `KeyError` repr, I wonder if something could be done to improve this (maybe a subclass of KeyError? maybe a new  optional named-only argument to KeyError?)


Seems there are others which could be improved here as well:

>>> import unicodedata
>>> unicodedata.lookup('zzz')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: "undefined character name 'zzz'"

----------
messages: 376754
nosy: Anthony Sottile
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: KeyError exception is more difficult to read due to quoting
versions: Python 3.10, Python 3.8, Python 3.9

_______________________________________
Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue41767>
_______________________________________