Clare S. Y. Huang Data Scientist | Atmospheric Dynamicist

Capturing error with more details in Python

23 Aug 2024

The python native library traceback can provide more details about an (unexpected) error compared to error catching with except Exception as ex: and then examine ex.

Let’s make a function that would result in error for demonstration:

import traceback


def do_something_wrong():
    cc = int("come on!")
    return cc

try:  # first catch
    do_something_wrong()
except Exception as ex:
    print(f"The Exception is here:\n{ex}")

try:  # second catch
    do_something_wrong()
except:
    print(f"Use traceback.format_exc() instead:\n{traceback.format_exc()}")

The first catch would only display

The Exception is here:
invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'come on!'

while the second catch includes not only the error but where it occurs

Use traceback.format_exc() instead:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/csyhuang/JetBrains/PyCharm2024.1/scratches/scratch.py", line 16, in <module>
    do_something_wrong()
  File "/Users/csyhuang/JetBrains/PyCharm2024.1/scratches/scratch.py", line 5, in do_something_wrong
    cc = int("come on!")

In a large software project, the second example would be way more helpful than the first.

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