[Tutor] finally without try or except

[Steven D'Aprano]

Tino Dai wrote:

> I just remember that there was a performance hit or something for doing
> that.
> Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Yes, and no.

Creating a try block in Python is lightweight and fast. It is about as fast as 
the "pass" statement, that is, pretty damn fast and more or less faster than 
doing *anything* at all. But technically, yes, there is overhead to try.

(This is in contrast to Java, where just creating a try block is expensive.)

But *catching* the exception is expensive. Not hugely expensive, it isn't like 
it takes a second or two, but it does take maybe ten microseconds[1] or so. If 
you're doing a LOT of exception-catching, all those microseconds can add up.

But for the use-case you're talking about, who cares if your program takes an 
extra ten microseconds, or even a millisecond? You're never going to notice.





[1] Number plucked out of thin air.


-- 
Steven