How to catch an exception message in python?

Question

I want something of the form

try:
  # code
except *, error_message:
  print(error_message)

i.e I want to have a generic except block that catches all types of exceptions and prints an error message. Eg. "ZeroDivisionError: division by zero". Is it possible in python?

If I do the following I can catch all exceptions, but I won't get the error message.

try:
  # code
except:
  print("Exception occurred")

Did you try reading the documentation on exceptions? It's definitely in there — roganjosh, Jun 05 '20 at 16:40

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 05 '20 at 16:42

12

Try this:

except Exception as e:
    print(str(e))

answered Jun 05 '20 at 16:42

Jakob

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Óscar López · Answer 2 · 2021-03-31T12:05:34.150

4

This will allow you to retrieve the message of any exception derived from the Exception base class:

try:
    raise Exception('An error has occurred.')
except Exception as ex:
    print(str(ex))

edited Mar 31 '21 at 12:05

answered Jun 05 '20 at 16:42

Óscar López

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`AttributeError: 'KeyError' object has no attribute 'message'` – bart-kosmala Mar 31 '21 at 11:59
@bart-kosmala Sorry, this used to work in Python 2.x but doesn't work anymore for Python 3.x. I've updated my answer, please take back the downvote. – Óscar López Mar 31 '21 at 12:06

How to catch an exception message in python?

2 Answers2