[Tutor] spss.BasePivotTable

[Albert-Jan Roskam]

From: Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info>
>To: tutor at python.org 
>Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 4:19 AM
>Subject: Re: [Tutor] spss.BasePivotTable
>
>
>On 27/08/13 23:14, Albert-Jan Roskam wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I am trying to create a BasePivot table with three columns: one for the labels, one for a a category "Before" and one for "After". The following attempt fails, but what am I doing wrong?
>
>At least two things. Here is the first:
>
>> try:
>    [much code]
>> except spss.SpssError:
>>      print "Error."
>
>You should replace that line with:
>
>print """Python gives you a nice traceback showing you exactly
>what went wrong and where it went wrong, but I'm not going to
>show it to you. Instead, you have to guess, because Screw You.
>"""
>
>It's a little more wordy, but more accurate.

;-) Thank you, I entirely agree. I hate nondescriptive errors myself, too.

>And the second:
>
>> print spss.GetLastErrorMessage()
>
>You're apparently not reading what the last error message is, or if you have read it, you're keeping it a secret from us.
>
>
>What you actually ought to do is preferably get rid of the try...except altogether, at least while debugging. Your aim as a programmer is not to hide errors, but to eliminate them. Hiding them only makes it harder to identify the errors, which is the first step in eliminating them.

 
I was also thinking that there was a bit MUCH code in the try-except. But sometimes I keep it all in a try-clause because these lines of code are one coherent block.