Python assertRaises on user-defined exceptions

Question

The following question was triggered by the discussion in this post.

Assume two files (foobar.py and foobar_unittest.py). File foobar.py contains a class (FooBar) with two functions (foo and bar). Function bar raises a built-in exception, function foo a user-defined exception.

# foobar.py
class MyException(Exception):
    pass
class FooBar:
    def __init__(self):
        pass
    def bar(self):
        raise ValueError('Hello World.')
    def foo(self):
        raise MyException('Hello World.')

.

# foobar_unittest.py
import unittest
import foobar as fb
class MyException(Exception):
    pass
class FooBarTestCases(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_bar(self):
        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
            fb.FooBar().bar()
    def test_foo(self):
        with self.assertRaises(MyException):
            fb.FooBar().foo()
if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

When running unit-test on foobar.py, why does the function raising the user-defined exception (foo) fail to pass the test?

>>> python2.7 foobar_unittest.py 
.E
======================================================================
ERROR: test_foo (__main__.FooBarTestCases)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "foobar_unittest.py", line 11, in test_foo
    fb.FooBar().foo()
  File "/a_path/foobar.py", line 9, in foo
    raise MyException('Hello World.')
MyException: Hello World.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 2 tests in 0.000s

FAILED (errors=1)

Answer 1

import MyException from foobar, don't redefine it.

import unittest
from foobar import MyException
import foobar as fb

class FooBarTestCases(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_bar(self):
        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
            fb.FooBar().bar()
    def test_foo(self):
        with self.assertRaises(MyException):
            fb.FooBar().foo()
if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

This code should work now as

..
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 2 tests in 0.001s

OK