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Python

Brendan Whiting
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Brendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,735 Points
Posted by Brendan Whiting
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Brendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,735 Points

I still don't understand whitespace

This is my code:

from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def homepage():
    try:
        return "This is some test text"
    except Exception, e: 
        return str(e)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

This is my error message:

  File "__init__.py", line 9
    except Exception, e:
                       ^
IndentationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level

I'm using Sublime Text 2 and it automatically creates tabs when I've started a code block. Most of the time this doesn't seem to cause any problems. In this case, I've tried changing the tabs to spaces, same error. Also, I tried reading this person's blog to figure it out: http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/block_indentation.hawk

I don't get it. What are the best practices with whitespace in python? Should I change the default behavior of my text editor?

2 Answers

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 Points

The best practice according to PEP-8 is to use 4-space indentation.

As in the docs your except syntax should be:

    except Exception as e:
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,858 Points
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,858 Points

Thanks Chris Freeman

I haven't looked at Python for a bit. Thank you for correcting the amount of spaces to 4.

Is it Ruby that is 2 spaces, then? I really thought Python was two... :confused:

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 Points

I hadn't read the blog before. It seems more of a How-To on pushing the boundaries. The issue with non-PEP-8 coding is it leaves code that others have to live with or fix for compliance.

When in doubt, run pylint or flake8 to check for non-standard formatting.

Jason Anders
MOD
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,858 Points
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,858 Points

I'm not 100%, but if I remember correctly, Python uses 2 spaces as indentation. So, if you set Sublime to 2 spaces as indentation (pressing tab), you should be okay. Again, I don't do much Python, but give that a try.

So this:

@app.route('/')
def homepage():
    try:
        return "This is some test text"
    except Exception, e: 
        return str(e)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

Would look like this:

@app.route('/')
def homepage():
  try:
    return "This is some test text"
  except Exception, e: 
    return str(e)

if __name__ == "__main__":
  app.run()

:)

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 Points

Ack! Do not use 2-space indentation. See PEP-8 comment above. Use 4-space indentation.

Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,858 Points
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,858 Points

I knew I wasn't sure.... Is it Ruby that is 2 space??