hasattr() vs try-except block to deal with non-existent attributes

Question

if hasattr(obj, 'attribute'):
    # do somthing

vs

try:
    # access obj.attribute
except AttributeError, e:
    # deal with AttributeError

Which should be preferred and why?

Answer 1

Any benches that illustrate difference in performance?

timeit it's your friend

$ python -mtimeit -s 'class C(object): a = 4
c = C()' 'hasattr(c, "nonexistent")'
1000000 loops, best of 3: 1.87 usec per loop
$ python -mtimeit -s 'class C(object): a = 4
c = C()' 'hasattr(c, "a")'
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.446 usec per loop
$ python -mtimeit -s 'class C(object): a = 4
c = C()' 'try:
 c.a
except:
 pass'
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.247 usec per loop
$ python -mtimeit -s 'class C(object): a = 4
c = C()' 'try:
 c.nonexistent
except:
 pass'
100000 loops, best of 3: 3.13 usec per loop
$

       |positive|negative
hasattr|  0.446 |  1.87 
try    |  0.247 |  3.13