LBYL vs EAFP

[Chris Angelico]

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 10:16 AM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
>     from numbers import Number
>     if isinstance(x, Number):
>         ...
>     else:
>         raise TypeError
>
>
> or Ask Forgiveness:
>
>     x + 0
>     ...
>
>
> where in both cases the ellipsis ... is the code I actually care about.

Caveat to my previous post: I would NOT indent the function body for
the sake of this check. I'd negate it:

if not isinstance(x, Number): raise TypeError

(hopefully with further information in the TypeError). I don't like
the code style that puts conditions, then more code, then error
handling - I prefer to fail-and-bail.

ChrisA