python – How to re-raise an exception in nested try/except blocks?

python – How to re-raise an exception in nested try/except blocks?

As of Python 3 the traceback is stored in the exception, so a simple raise e will do the (mostly) right thing:

try:
    something()
except SomeError as e:
    try:
        plan_B()
    except AlsoFailsError:
        raise e  # or raise e from None - see below

The traceback produced will include an additional notice that SomeError occurred while handling AlsoFailsError (because of raise e being inside except AlsoFailsError). This is misleading because what actually happened is the other way around – we encountered AlsoFailsError, and handled it, while trying to recover from SomeError. To obtain a traceback that doesnt include AlsoFailsError, replace raise e with raise e from None.

In Python 2 youd store the exception type, value, and traceback in local variables and use the three-argument form of raise:

try:
    something()
except SomeError:
    t, v, tb = sys.exc_info()
    try:
        plan_B()
    except AlsoFailsError:
        raise t, v, tb

Even if the accepted solution is right, its good to point to the Six library which has a Python 2+3 solution, using six.reraise.

six.reraise(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback=None)

Reraise an exception, possibly with a different traceback.
[…]

So, you can write:

import six


try:
    something()
except SomeError:
    t, v, tb = sys.exc_info()
    try:
        plan_B()
    except AlsoFailsError:
        six.reraise(t, v, tb)

python – How to re-raise an exception in nested try/except blocks?

As per Drew McGowens suggestion, but taking care of a general case (where a return value s is present), heres an alternative to user4815162342s answer:

try:
    s = something()
except SomeError as e:
    def wrapped_plan_B():
        try:
            return False, plan_B()
        except:
            return True, None
    failed, s = wrapped_plan_B()
    if failed:
        raise