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What's the proper way to declare custom exception classes in modern Python? My primary goal is to follow whatever standard other exception classes have, so that (for instance) any extra string I include in the exception is printed out by whatever tool caught the exception.
By "modern Python" I mean something that will run in Python 2.5 but be 'correct' for the Python 2.6 and Python 3.* way of doing things. And by "custom" I mean an Exception object that can include extra data about the cause of the error: a string, maybe also some other arbitrary object relevant to the exception.
I was tripped up by the following deprecation warning in Python 2.6.2:
>>> class MyError(Exception): ... def __init__(self, message): ... self.message = message ... >>> MyError("foo") _sandbox.py:3: DeprecationWarning: BaseException.message has been deprecated as of Python 2.6 It seems crazy that BaseException has a special meaning for attributes named message. I gather from PEP-352 that attribute did have a special meaning in 2.5 they're trying to deprecate away, so I guess that name (and that one alone) is now forbidden? Ugh.
I'm also fuzzily aware that Exception has some magic parameter args, but I've never known how to use it. Nor am I sure it's the right way to do things going forward; a lot of the discussion I found online suggested they were trying to do away with args in Python 3.
Update: two answers have suggested overriding __init__, and __str__/__unicode__/__repr__. That seems like a lot of typing, is it necessary?
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In Python, users can define custom exceptions by creating a new class. This exception class has to be derived, either directly or indirectly, from the built-in Exception class. Most of the built-in exceptions are also derived from this class.
In Python, exceptions can be handled using a try statement. The critical operation which can raise an exception is placed inside the try clause. The code that handles the exceptions is written in the except clause. We can thus choose what operations to perform once we have caught the exception.
Maybe I missed the question, but why not:
class MyException(Exception): pass To override something (or pass extra args), do this:
class ValidationError(Exception): def __init__(self, message, errors): # Call the base class constructor with the parameters it needs super().__init__(message) # Now for your custom code... self.errors = errors That way you could pass dict of error messages to the second param, and get to it later with e.errors.
In Python 2, you have to use this slightly more complex form of super():
super(ValidationError, self).__init__(message) If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
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