Is except: ... pass bad style?

[Thomas Heller]

marduk <marduk at python.net> writes:

> I commonly use code like this
>
> try:
>     # call optional method
>     myobj.method()
> except AttributeError:
>     # no biggie
>     pass
>
>
> Occasionally I use pylint, which is a good tool, but in the above
> snippet pylint will complain that 'Except doesn't do anything'.  True,
> but is that bad style?  I know there are other ways of doing it, but
> of all the other "obvious" ones, this appears the most straight
> forward.
>
> Should I ignore pylint or is there a more Pythonic way to do this?

It's better to write it this way, imo:

try:
    mth = myobje.method
except AttributeError:
    pass
else:
    mth()

Otherwise you cannot determine whether myobj doesn't have this method,
or the method call is raising an exception.

Thomas