The rules of duck typing in python encourage programmers to use the "try...except..." clause. At the same time python with new versions enables to use more powerful list comprehensions (for example Conditional Expressions). However, it is impossible to write the "try...except..." clause in a list comprehension. The following recipe "protects" a function against exception and returns a default value in the case when exception is thrown.
Python, 13 lines
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Copy to clipboard1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | def safecall(f, default=None, exception=Exception):
'''Returns modified f. When the modified f is called and throws an
exception, the default value is returned'''
def _safecall(*args,**argv):
try:
return f(*args,**argv)
except exception:
return default
return _safecall
[safecall(int)(i) for i in '1 2 x'.split()] # returns [1, 2, None]
[safecall(int, -1, ValueError)(i) for i in '1 2 x'.split()] # returns [1, 2, -1]
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Useful when using python in an interactive manner (for example, in ipython).
exception, the function parameter, can be obviously a tuple specifying many exception classes.
I'd rather not have a default value for the
exceptionparameter .. for that would catch every exception including, for instance, RuntimeError and AssertionError.