Is this an Intended behaviour of __getattr__?

[Grace]

"Volucris" <volucris at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3b6111de$0$325$6e49188b at news.goldengate.net...
>
> "Grace" <nospam at nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:uu787.103805$ph7.16107665 at news.hananet.net...
> > I'm a bit confused with this:
> >
> > class Node:
> >     def __init__(self):
> >         self._next=None
> >     def __getattr__(self,attr):
> >         if attr=='next':
> >             if self._next is not None:
> >                 return self._next
> >             else:
> >                 self._next=Node()
> >                 return self._next
> >         print attr,"was called..."
> >         error=3/0  #supposed to raise exception
> >         raise AttributeError
> >
> > if __name__=='__main__':
> >     f=Node()
> >     links=[f.next,f.next,f.next.next,f.next.next]
> >     for each in links:
> >         print each
> >     print f.errorPlz
> >
> > And this yields exactly,
> >
> >  __str__ was called...
> > __repr__ was called...
> > <__main__.Node instance at 0081608C>
> >  __str__ was called...
> > __repr__ was called...
> > <__main__.Node instance at 0081608C>
> >  __str__ was called...
> > __repr__ was called...
> > <__main__.Node instance at 0081601C>
> >  __str__ was called...
> > __repr__ was called...
> > <__main__.Node instance at 0081601C>
> > al was called...
> > Traceback (most recent call last):
> >   File "...", line 22, in ?
> >     print f.al
> >   File "...", line 12, in __getattr__
> >     k=3/0
> > ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero
> >
> > Why did it suck up all ZeroDivisionErrors while outputting the "was
> > called..." messages? Special case with magic methods? Is this an
intended
> > behaviour? Then what is the exact process/mechanism?
> >
> > Thanks in advance.
> >
> >
>
> in __getattr__ if the attr is 'next', if checks the value of _next and
> returns whether it's None or not. the code after return never gets
executed.
> the only time it didn't return first, was when __getattr__ was called
with
> 'errorPlz' (not 'next').
>
> That was too wordy, but I hope it's intelligible.
> --

Thanks, but I don't think it answers my question.

I think when __repr__ and __str__ are called internally via the interpreter
as in the print statement, it passes through the __getattr__ method of Node
class while all exceptions are simply ignored.

Am I right on this? Not sure.

ps. when  I use "not equal operator" != in the "if self._next is not None:"
line, __ne__ (above python 2.0) is searched after, and as it fails,
__getattr__ is called, and goes into the same strange process as above,
ignoring all exceptions.