HowCanI: inlined exceptions

[Manus Hand]

Pete Shinners wrote:
> 
> what i'd really,really like to do is define something
> that works like this
> 
> def catch(expression, errcode=None):
>     try:
>         return expression:
>     except:
>         return errcode
> 
> if __name__ == '__main__':
>     name = catch(fields[1], 'Anonymous')
> 
> i would really like to do this for myself, because i
> would use it extensively!
>
Personally, I think the nicest, most readable, and most Pythonic
way to write it is:
      try: name = fields[1]
      except: name = 'Anonymous'

But if you want anything cleaner than that, and which does not
involve passing the code to be evaluated into a function with
a try:except:, you'll have to wait for Guido to implement
something like this:
      name = fields[1] except 'Anonymous'
so that we can use the "or" idiom in a slightly different way. :-)

I gotta admit, I would make use of that if it was there...

But-I-wouldn't-necessarily-recommend-holding-your-breath-ly-y'rs,
Manus