Bare Excepts

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 03 Jan 2010 01:10:51 +1100, Lie Ryan wrote:

> On 1/2/2010 9:42 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> On Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:27:57 -0800, myle wrote:
>>
>>> Why we should prefer ``if: ...'' over  a ``try: ... except something:
>>> pass'' block?
>>
>> We shouldn't, not in general.
> 
> One exception (pun intended) is if the try-block have a side effect that
> is difficult to cleanup cleanly.

What if the "if ..." test has a side-effect? This is an argument against 
side-effects, not against using exceptions.


But of course you are right, there are lots of good reasons for choosing 
to use an if test rather than a try block, or vice versa. I would argue 
that the try block is generally more Pythonic, and should be preferred, 
but that doesn't mean that there aren't reasons for sometimes choosing 
other strategies instead.


-- 
Steven