Handle Specific Error - Learn to program with Python

Editor settings

Show hidden files

Use vim keybindings

General settings

Code execution endpoint:

Handle specific error #

Using except the way we did in the previous lesson would catch all error types that occurred inside the try block, which is generally considered a bad practice. Instead of using a broad except statement, it is generally recommended to catch and handle specific exceptions that you expect may occur in your code.

The error type is usually at the bottom of the error message. For example, in the output below, we can see that the error type when we divide by zero is ZeroDivisionError.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 1, in <module>
    10 / 0
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero # <-- The error type

We can catch a specific type of error with except by using the following syntax:

try:
    # code to run
except error_type:
    # code to run of the error occurs.

For example, we can catch ZeroDivisionError the same way we did in our previous lesson with the code below:

try:
    10 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError: <-- Specify the error type to catch
    print("Error: Cannot divide the number by zero")
print("The program is running")

# Output
Error: Cannot divide the number by zero
The program is running

If the error occurred due to another reason, such as dividing a number with a string, the program will stop running and raises another error. In that case, the error raised is the TypeError instead of ZeroDivisionError:

try:
    10 / "OKAY"
except ZeroDivisionError:
    print("Error: Cannot divide the number by zero")
print("The program is running")

# Output
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 2, in <module>
    10 / "OKAY"
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for /: 'int' and 'str'

Exercise #

Update the divide_the_number function to handle only ZeroDivisionError.

Tests #

divide_the_number(4, 2) should return 2.0
divide_the_number(10, 4) should return 2.5
divide_the_number(10, 0) should print the message "You cannot divide by zero!"
divide_the_number(10, "Hello") should cause an error TypeError and not print the message "You cannot divide by zero!"

Language

Output will be displayed here