EXCEPTIONS,

ASSERTIONS

6.00.01X LECTURE 1
EXCEPTIONS AND ASSERTIONS
 what happens when procedure execution hits an
unexpected condition?
 get an exception… to what was expected
• trying to access beyond list limits
test = [1,7,4]
test[4]  IndexError
• trying to convert an inappropriate type
int(test)  TypeError
• referencing a non-existing variable
a  NameError
• mixing data types without coercion
'a'/4  TypeError

6.00.01X LECTURE 2
OTHER TYPES OF EXCEPTIONS
 already seen common error types:
• SyntaxError: Python can’t parse program
• NameError: local or global name not found
• AttributeError: attribute
"
reference fails
• TypeError: operand doesn’t have correct type
• ValueError: operand type okay, but value is illegal
• IOError: IO system reports malfunction (e.g. file not
found)

6.00.01X LECTURE 3
WHAT TO DO WITH
EXCEPTIONS?
 what to do when encounter an error?
 fail silently:
• substitute default values or just continue
• bad idea! user gets no warning
 return an “error” value
• what value to choose?
• complicates code having to check for a special value
 stop execution, signal error condition
• in Python: raise an exception
raise Exception("descriptive string")

6.00.01X LECTURE 4
DEALING WITH EXCEPTIONS
 Python code can provide handlers for exceptions
try:
a = int(input("Tell me one number:"))
b = int(input("Tell me another number:"))
print(a/b)
print ("Okay")
except:
print("Bug in user input.")
print(”Outside")

 exceptions raised by any statement in body of try are

handled by the except statement and execution continues
after the body of the except statement
6.00.01X LECTURE 5
HANDLING SPECIFIC
EXCEPTIONS
 have separate except clauses to deal with a particular
type of exception
try:
a = int(input("Tell me one number: "))
b = int(input("Tell me another number: "))
print("a/b = ", a/b)
print("a+b = ", a+b)
except ValueError:
print("Could not convert to a number.”)
except ZeroDivisionError:
print("Can't divide by zero”)
except:
print("Something went very wrong.”)

6.00.01X LECTURE 6
OTHER EXCEPTIONS
 else:
• body of this is executed when execution of associated
try body completes with no exceptions
 finally:
• body of this is always executed after try, else and
except clauses, even if they raised another error or
executed a break, continue or return
• useful for clean-up code that should be run no matter
what else happened (e.g. close a file)

6.00.01X LECTURE 7
6.00.01X LECTURE 8
 EXAMPLE EXCEPTION USAGE
while True:
try:
n = input("Please enter an integer: ")
n = int(n)
break
except ValueError:
print(”Input not an integer; try again”)
print(”Correct input of an integer!”)

6.00.01X LECTURE 9
EXAMPLE: CONTROL INPUT
data = []
file_name = input("Provide a name of a file of data ")

try:
fh = open(file_name, 'r')
except IOError:
print('cannot open', file_name)
else:
for new in fh:
if new != '\n':
addIt = new[:-1].split(',') #remove trailing \n
data.append(addIt)
finally:
fh.close() # close file even if fail

6.00.01X LECTURE 10
EXAMPLE: CONTROL INPUT
 appears to correct read in data, and convert to a list of
lists
 now suppose we want to restructure this into a list of
names and a list of grades for each entry in the overall
list

6.00.01X LECTURE 11
 EXAMPLE: CONTROL INPUT
data = []
file_name = input("Provide a name of a file of data ")

try:
fh = open(file_name, 'r')
except IOError:
print('cannot open', file_name)
else:
for new in fh:
if new != '\n':
addIt = new[:-1].split(',') #remove trailing \n
data.append(addIt)
finally:
fh.close() # close file even if fail

gradesData = []
if data:
for student in data:
try:
gradesData.append([student[0:2], [student[2]]])
except IndexError:
gradesData.append([student[0:2], []])

6.00.01X LECTURE 12
EXAMPLE: CONTROL INPUT
 works okay if have standard form, including case of no
grade
 but fails if names are not two parts long

6.00.01X LECTURE 13
 EXAMPLE: CONTROL INPUT
data = []
file_name = input("Provide a name of a file of data ")

try:
fh = open(file_name, 'r')
except IOError:
print('cannot open', file_name)
else:
for new in fh:
if new != '\n':
addIt = new[:-1].split(',') #remove trailing \n
data.append(addIt)
finally:
fh.close() # close file even if fail

gradesData = []
if data:
for student in data:
try:
name = student[0:-1]
grades = int(student[-1])
gradesData.append([name, [grades]])
except ValueError:
gradesData.append([student[:], []])

6.00.01X LECTURE 14
6.00.01X LECTURE 15
EXCEPTIONS AS CONTROL
FLOW
 don’t return special values when an error occurred
and then check whether ‘error value’ was returned
 instead, raise an exception when unable to produce a
result consistent with function’s specification
raise <exceptionName>(<arguments>)
raise ValueError("something is wrong")

6.00.01X LECTURE 16
 EXAMPLE: RAISING AN
EXCEPTION
def get_ratios(L1, L2):
""" Assumes: L1 and L2 are lists of equal length of numbers
Returns: a list containing L1[i]/L2[i] """
ratios = []
for index in range(len(L1)):
try:
ratios.append(L1[index]/float(L2[index]))
except ZeroDivisionError:
ratios.append(float('NaN')) #NaN = Not a Number
except:
raise ValueError('get_ratios called with bad arg')
return ratios

6.00.01X LECTURE 17
EXAMPLE OF EXCEPTIONS
 assume we are given a class list for a subject: each
entry is a list of two parts
• a list of first and last name for a student
• a list of grades on assignments
test_grades = [[['peter', 'parker'], [80.0, 70.0, 85.0]],
[['bruce', 'wayne'], [100.0, 80.0, 74.0]]]

 create a new class list, with name, grades, and an

average
[[['peter', 'parker'], [80.0, 70.0, 85.0], 78.33333],
[['bruce', 'wayne'], [100.0, 80.0, 74.0], 84.666667]]]

6.00.01X LECTURE 18
EXAMPLE
[[['peter', 'parker'], [80.0, 70.0, 85.0]],
CODE [['bruce', 'wayne'], [100.0, 80.0, 74.0]]]

def get_stats(class_list):
new_stats = []
for elt in class_list:
new_stats.append([elt[0], elt[1], avg(elt[1])])
return new_stats

def avg(grades):
return sum(grades)/len(grades)

6.00.01X LECTURE 19
ERROR IF NO GRADE FOR A
STUDENT
 if one or more students don’t have any grades,
get an error
test_grades = [[['peter', 'parker'], [10.0, 5.0, 85.0]],
[['bruce', 'wayne'], [10.0, 8.0, 74.0]],
[['captain', 'america'], [8.0,10.0,96.0]],
[['deadpool'], []]]

 get ZeroDivisionError: float division by zero

because try to
return sum(grades)/len(grades)

6.00.01X LECTURE 20
OPTION 1: FLAG THE ERROR
BY PRINTING A MESSAGE
 decide to notify that something went wrong with a msg
def avg(grades):
try:
return sum(grades)/len(grades)
except ZeroDivisionError:
print('no grades data’)
 running on some test data gives
no grades data
[[['peter', 'parker'], [10.0, 5.0, 85.0], 15.416666666666666],
[['bruce', 'wayne'], [10.0, 8.0, 74.0], 13.833333333333334],
[['captain', 'america'], [8.0, 10.0, 96.0], 17.5],
[['deadpool'], [], None]]

6.00.01X LECTURE 21
OPTION 2: CHANGE THE POLICY
 decide that a student with no grades gets a zero
def avg(grades):
try:
return sum(grades)/len(grades)
except ZeroDivisionError:
print('no grades data’)
return 0.0
 running on some test data gives
no grades data
[[['peter', 'parker'], [10.0, 5.0, 85.0], 15.416666666666666],
[['bruce', 'wayne'], [10.0, 8.0, 74.0], 13.833333333333334],
[['captain', 'america'], [8.0, 10.0, 96.0], 17.5],
[['deadpool'], [], 0.0]]

6.00.01X LECTURE 22
6.00.01X LECTURE 23
ASSERTIONS
 want to be sure that assumptions on state of
computation are as expected
 use an assert statement to raise an
AssertionError exception if assumptions not met
 an example of good defensive programming

6.00.01X LECTURE 24
 EXAMPLE
def avg(grades):
assert not len(grades) == 0, 'no grades data'
return sum(grades)/len(grades)

 raises an AssertionError if it is given an empty list for

grades
 otherwise runs ok

6.00.01X LECTURE 25
ASSERTIONS AS DEFENSIVE
PROGRAMMING
 assertions don’t allow a programmer to control
response to unexpected conditions
 ensure that execution halts whenever an expected
condition is not met
 typically used to check inputs to functions procedures,
but can be used anywhere
 can be used to check outputs of a function to avoid
propagating bad values
 can make it easier to locate a source of a bug

6.00.01X LECTURE 26
WHERE TO USE ASSERTIONS?
 goal is to spot bugs as soon as introduced and make
clear where they happened
 use as a supplement to testing
 raise exceptions if users supplies bad data input
 use assertions to
• check types of arguments or values
• check that invariants on data structures are met
• check constraints on return values
• check for violations of constraints on procedure (e.g. no
duplicates in a list)

6.00.01X LECTURE 27