How can I more easily suppress previous exceptions when I raise my own exception in response?

Question

Consider

try:
   import someProprietaryModule
except ImportError:
   raise ImportError(\'It appears that  is not installed...\')         


        

Answer 1

This can be done like this in Python 2.7 and Python 3:

try:
    import someProprietaryModule
except ImportError as e:
    raised_error = e

if isinstance(raised_error, ImportError):
    raise ImportError('It appears that <someProprietaryModule> is not installed...')

Answer 2

In Python 3.3 and later raise ... from None may be used in this situation.

try:
   import someProprietaryModule
except ImportError:
   raise ImportError('It appears that <someProprietaryModule> is not installed...') from None

This has the desired results.