Cost of raising exceptions.

[Aahz Maruch]

In article <mailman.991144423.30414.python-list at python.org>,
Allan Crooks  <amc1 at dcs.qmw.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>I'm fairly new to Python (I fear that's always a bad way to start a
>sentence), but rather curious at the same time. Which leads me to this
>question:
>
> Are raising exceptions a costly operation?

Raising an exception is costly; executing a try block *without* an
exception is cheap.  Overall, if using an exception feels natural, go
ahead and use it.  Do the profiling *after* you've written your program
in a natural and readable style.
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