Converting Exception to a string in Python 3

Question

does anyone have an idea, why this Python 3.2 code

try:    
    raise Exception(\'X\')
except Exception as e:
    print(\"Error {0}\".format(str(e)))
         


        

Answer 1

There is a version-agnostic conversion here:

# from the `six` library
import sys
PY2 = sys.version_info[0] == 2
if PY2:
    text_type = unicode
    binary_type = str
else:
    text_type = str
    binary_type = bytes

def exc2str(e):
    if e.args and isinstance(e.args[0], binary_type):
        return e.args[0].decode('utf-8')
    return text_type(e)

and tests for it:

def test_exc2str():
    a = u"\u0856"
    try:
        raise ValueError(a)
    except ValueError as e:
        assert exc2str(e) == a
        assert isinstance(exc2str(e), text_type)
    try:
        raise ValueError(a.encode('utf-8'))
    except ValueError as e:
        assert exc2str(e) == a
        assert isinstance(exc2str(e), text_type)
    try:
        raise ValueError()
    except ValueError as e:
        assert exc2str(e) == ''
        assert isinstance(exc2str(e), text_type)