How to get the name of an exception that was caught in Python?

Solution 1:

Here are a few different ways to get the name of the class of the exception:

1. type(exception).__name__
2. exception.__class__.__name__
3. exception.__class__.__qualname__

e.g.,

try:
    foo = bar
except Exception as exception:
    assert type(exception).__name__ == 'NameError'
    assert exception.__class__.__name__ == 'NameError'
    assert exception.__class__.__qualname__ == 'NameError'

Solution 2:

If you want the fully qualified class name (e.g. sqlalchemy.exc.IntegrityError instead of just IntegrityError), you can use the function below, which I took from MB's awesome answer to another question (I just renamed some variables to suit my tastes):

def get_full_class_name(obj):
    module = obj.__class__.__module__
    if module is None or module == str.__class__.__module__:
        return obj.__class__.__name__
    return module + '.' + obj.__class__.__name__

Example:

try:
    # <do something with sqlalchemy that angers the database>
except sqlalchemy.exc.SQLAlchemyError as e:
    print(get_full_class_name(e))

# sqlalchemy.exc.IntegrityError

Solution 3:

You can also use sys.exc_info(). exc_info() returns 3 values: type, value, traceback. On documentation: https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html#sys.exc_info

import sys

try:
    foo = bar
except Exception:
    exc_type, value, traceback = sys.exc_info()
    assert exc_type.__name__ == 'NameError'
    print "Failed with exception [%s]" % exc_type.__name__

Solution 4:

This works, but it seems like there must be an easier, more direct way?

try:
    foo = bar
except Exception as exception:
    assert repr(exception) == '''NameError("name 'bar' is not defined",)'''
    name = repr(exception).split('(')[0]
    assert name == 'NameError'