Pythonic way of handling multiple possible file locations? (Without using nested trys)

Question

I have a Python script that needs to look for a certain file.

I could use os.path.isafile(), but I've heard that's bad Python, so I'm trying to catch the exception instead.

However, there's two locations I could possibly look for the file. I could use nested trys to handle this:

try:
    keyfile = 'location1'
    try_to_connect(keyfile)
except IOError:
    try:
        keyfile = 'location2'
        try_to_connect(keyfile)
    except:
        logger.error('Keyfile not found at either location1 or location2')

Or I could just put a pass in the first except block, and then have another one just below:

try:
    keyfile = 'location1'
    try_to_connect(keyfile)
except IOError:
    pass
try:
    keyfile = 'location2'
    try_to_connect(keyfile)
except:
    logger.error('Keyfile not found at either location1 or location2')

However, is there a more Pythonic way to handle the above situation?

Cheers, Victor

Answer 1

for location in locations:
    try:
        try_to_connect(location)
        break
    except IOError:
        continue
else:
    # this else is optional
    # executes some code if none of the locations is valid
    # for example raise an Error as suggested @eumiro

Also you can add an else clause to the for loop; that is some code is executed only if the loop terminates through exhaustion (none of the locations is valid).