Proper way to declare custom exceptions in modern Python?

Question

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 instan

Answer 1

As of Python 3.8 (2018, https://docs.python.org/dev/whatsnew/3.8.html), the recommended method is still:

class CustomExceptionName(Exception):
    """Exception raised when very uncommon things happen"""
    pass

Please don't forget to document, why a custom exception is neccessary!

If you need to, this is the way to go for exceptions with more data:

class CustomExceptionName(Exception):
    """Still an exception raised when uncommon things happen"""
    def __init__(self, message, payload=None):
        self.message = message
        self.payload = payload # you could add more args
    def __str__(self):
        return str(self.message) # __str__() obviously expects a string to be returned, so make sure not to send any other data types

and fetch them like:

try:
    raise CustomExceptionName("Very bad mistake.", "Forgot upgrading from Python 1")
except CustomExceptionName as error:
    print(str(error)) # Very bad mistake
    print("Detail: {}".format(error.payload)) # Detail: Forgot upgrading from Python 1

payload=None is important to make it pickle-able. Before dumping it, you have to call error.__reduce__(). Loading will work as expected.

You maybe should investigate in finding a solution using pythons return statement if you need much data to be transferred to some outer structure. This seems to be clearer/more pythonic to me. Advanced exceptions are heavily used in Java, which can sometimes be annoying, when using a framework and having to catch all possible errors.

Answer 2

Maybe I missed the question, but why not:

class MyException(Exception):
    pass

Edit: 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(ValidationError, self).__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

---

Python 3 Update: In Python 3+, you can use this slightly more compact use of super():

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

Answer 3

With modern Python Exceptions, you don't need to abuse .message, or override .__str__() or .__repr__() or any of it. If all you want is an informative message when your exception is raised, do this:

class MyException(Exception):
    pass

raise MyException("My hovercraft is full of eels")

That will give a traceback ending with MyException: My hovercraft is full of eels.

If you want more flexibility from the exception, you could pass a dictionary as the argument:

raise MyException({"message":"My hovercraft is full of animals", "animal":"eels"})

However, to get at those details in an except block is a bit more complicated. The details are stored in the args attribute, which is a list. You would need to do something like this:

try:
    raise MyException({"message":"My hovercraft is full of animals", "animal":"eels"})
except MyException as e:
    details = e.args[0]
    print(details["animal"])

It is still possible to pass in multiple items to the exception and access them via tuple indexes, but this is highly discouraged (and was even intended for deprecation a while back). If you do need more than a single piece of information and the above method is not sufficient for you, then you should subclass Exception as described in the tutorial.

class MyError(Exception):
    def __init__(self, message, animal):
        self.message = message
        self.animal = animal
    def __str__(self):
        return self.message

Answer 4

A really simple approach:

class CustomError(Exception):
    pass

raise CustomError("Hmm, seems like this was custom coded...")

Or, have the error raise without printing __main__ (may look cleaner and neater):

class CustomError(Exception):
    __module__ = Exception.__module__

raise CustomError("Improved CustomError!")

Answer 5

Try this Example

class InvalidInputError(Exception):
    def __init__(self, msg):
        self.msg = msg
    def __str__(self):
        return repr(self.msg)

inp = int(input("Enter a number between 1 to 10:"))
try:
    if type(inp) != int or inp not in list(range(1,11)):
        raise InvalidInputError
except InvalidInputError:
    print("Invalid input entered")

Answer 6

You should override __repr__ or __unicode__ methods instead of using message, the args you provide when you construct the exception will be in the args attribute of the exception object.