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Python Python Basics Functions and Looping Raising Exceptions

Cody Stephenson
Cody Stephenson
8,361 Points
Posted by Cody Stephenson
Cody Stephenson
8,361 Points

Why leverage errors at all to handle some of the disallowed inputs instead of just using more if/try/else logic?

What is the purpose of leveraging errors (in this case the ValueError) instead of just specific logic in a try block? Something like 

if input <=1 
   print("message about needing more than one person")
if input > 1 
   print("successful message with calculated value")
else
   print("message about not being a valid input")

Is the purpose as fundamental as trying to avoid actually running through pieces of code?

1 Answer

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points
Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points

Hi Cody!

I can't really explain it other than that's just how they do it.

The real point is to handle exceptions in a way that can guide users with appropriate feedback without bringing the program execution to a grinding halt.

Usually, it helps to do it in a while loop, so you can keep prompting the user until valid input is provided.

Perhaps I can better explain it with an example:

https://teamtreehouse.com/community/all-together-now-the-project (check my beyond-the-challenge code).

More info:

https://www.w3schools.com/python/gloss_python_raise.asp

https://realpython.com/python-exceptions/

And by the way, if you are interested, I can provide you my code for a python program I wrote to explore the "Monty Hall Game " Problem Paradox - it has A LOT of error handling/exceptions.

As seen here:

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/precalculus/x9e81a4f98389efdf:prob-comb/x9e81a4f98389efdf:dependent-events-precalc/v/monty-hall-problem (and in the movie 21).

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!

Cody Stephenson
Cody Stephenson
8,361 Points
Cody Stephenson
Cody Stephenson
8,361 Points

I understand the logic of creating conditional responses if the input doesn't sense, but I'm wondering what the purpose of elevating and handling it as a custom exception is vs just handling it conditionally. It seems like an extra step if the input wouldn't actually break anything.