Coding⏱️ 2 min read📅 2026-05-31

How to Fix: Difference between except: and except Exception as e:

Catching exceptions in Python.

Quick Answer: Snippet 2 is more specific and informative, allowing for error handling with exception details.

Both the given code snippets are catching every exception and executing the code in the except: block. However, this approach can lead to a problem known as "catch-all exceptions", where you're not getting any meaningful information about the error that occurred.

🔍 Why This Happens

  • The issue arises when you're catching a bare Exception instead of a specific exception type. This can mask the root cause of the error and make it difficult to diagnose.

🔧 Proven Troubleshooting Steps

Method 1: Specific Exception Handling

  1. Step 1: Identify the specific exception type you want to catch. For example, if you're working with a database, you might want to catch DatabaseError or SQLException.

Method 2: Using the "as" Keyword

  1. Step 1: Use the as keyword to assign the caught exception object to a variable. For example, instead of catching Exception, you can catch Exception as e.

💡 Conclusion

By following these steps, you can avoid the problem of catching all exceptions and get more meaningful information about the error that occurred. This will make it easier to diagnose and fix issues in your code.

Did this fix your problem?

If not, try searching for specific error codes.

🔍 Search Error Database

❓ Frequently Asked Questions