Errors & debugging
Handle failures gracefully, raise helpful errors, and debug with confidence.
How to Assert Preconditions with Descriptive Messages in Python
Use Python's assert statement with a custom message to validate function preconditions and fail fast with clear diagnostics.
def divide(dividend, divisor):
assert divisor != 0, f"Divisor must be non-zero, got {divisor!r}"
return dividend / divisor
if __name__ == "__main__":
print(divide(10, 2))
try:
divide(10, 0)
except AssertionError as e:
print(f"AssertionError: {e}")
How to Build an Error Code Enum in Python
Define an API error code enum with descriptions and build structured error payloads for HTTP responses.
from enum import Enum
class APIErrorCode(Enum):
SUCCESS = 0
BAD_REQUEST = 400
UNAUTHORIZED = 401
FORBIDDEN = 403
NOT_FOUND = 404
CONFLICT = 409
INTERNAL_ERROR = 500
def describe_error(code):
descriptions = {
APIErrorCode.SUCCESS: "Request completed successfully",
APIE…
Implement a Context Manager That Suppresses Exceptions in Python
Shows how to write a custom context manager that catches specified exceptions and optionally re-raises others, plus the stdlib contextlib.suppress alternative.
import contextlib
class SuppressExceptions:
def __init__(self, *exceptions):
self.exceptions = exceptions
def __enter__(self):
return self
def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb):
if exc_type is None:
return False
if not self.exceptions or exc_type in se…
Map Exception Type to HTTP Status Code in Python
Maps Python exception types to appropriate HTTP status codes using a dictionary lookup for consistent API error handling.
EXCEPTION_STATUS_MAP = {
ValueError: 400,
KeyError: 400,
TypeError: 400,
PermissionError: 403,
FileNotFoundError: 404,
AttributeError: 404,
TimeoutError: 408,
NotImplementedError: 501,
ConnectionError: 503,
}
def status_code_for(exception_type):
try:
return EXCEPTION_S…
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Errors & debugging — Python code examples
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This page collects errors & debugging snippets — short, copy-ready Python you can paste into our free online IDE and run without installing anything. Each sample includes a plain-English explanation and the full source code.
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