this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
512 points (97.2% liked)
Programmer Humor
31217 readers
41 users here now
Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
Rules:
- Posts must be relevant to programming, programmers, or computer science.
- No NSFW content.
- Jokes must be in good taste. No hate speech, bigotry, etc.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Meme is funny, but that exception used as flow control hurts.
Tbf python guidelines encourage it over if/else in cases like this. "Easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission" or something along the lines
Do you have a specific PEP you're referencing or is this one of those "I assume this must be the case because of how common using try/except statements for flow control are" kind of things?
Pretty sure its not a PEP, but the python glossary mentions it. Searching 'python EAFP' brings up a lot of discussion on the topic too, so if nothing else its definitely a widespread phenomenon
I think there's a difference between "python guidelines encourage" something and "this is a common coding pattern." Yes, you can use try/except for flow control, but there's a lot of people, myself included, who try to use that style sparingly.