How to handle AssertionError in Python and find out which line or statement it occurred on?

devtk picture devtk · Jul 20, 2012 · Viewed 123.3k times · Source

I want to handle AssertionErrors both to hide unnecessary parts of the stack trace from the user and to print a message as to why the error occurred and what the user should do about it.

Is there any way to find out on which line or statement the assert failed within the except block?

try:
    assert True
    assert 7 == 7
    assert 1 == 2
    # many more statements like this
except AssertionError:
    print 'Houston, we have a problem.'
    print
    print 'An error occurred on line ???? in statement ???'
    exit(1)

I don't want to have to add this to every assert statement:

assert 7 == 7, "7 == 7"

because it repeats information.

Answer

phihag picture phihag · Jul 20, 2012

Use the traceback module:

import sys
import traceback

try:
    assert True
    assert 7 == 7
    assert 1 == 2
    # many more statements like this
except AssertionError:
    _, _, tb = sys.exc_info()
    traceback.print_tb(tb) # Fixed format
    tb_info = traceback.extract_tb(tb)
    filename, line, func, text = tb_info[-1]

    print('An error occurred on line {} in statement {}'.format(line, text))
    exit(1)