Documentation

The errors tutorial, chapter 8.3 contains an example that could be improved, as the highlighted subjects (exception ordering and matching) are not that easy to follow: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/errors.html

The issue was discussed here:
https://discuss.python.org/t/exception-tutorial-confusion/97456

Original:
A class in an except clause matches exceptions which are instances of the class itself or one of its derived classes (but not the other way around — an except clause listing a derived class does not match instances of its base classes). For example, the following code will print B, C, D in that order:

class B(Exception):
    pass

class C(B):
    pass

class D(C):
    pass

for cls in [B, C, D]:
    try:
        raise cls()
    except D:
        print("D")
    except C:
        print("C")
    except B:
        print("B")

Note that if the except clauses were reversed (with except B first), it would have printed B, B, B — the first matching except clause is triggered.

Suggested Update
Code examples created by Guido van Rossum, see https://discuss.python.org/t/exception-tutorial-confusion/97456/5.
A class in an except clause matches exceptions which are instances of the class itself or one of its derived classes (but not the other way around — an except clause listing a derived class does not match instances of its base classes).

For example, the following code will print B, C in that order:

class B(Exception):
    pass

class C(B):
    pass

for cls in [B, C]:
    try:
        raise cls()
    except C:
        # Matches C but not B.
        print("C")
    except B:
        # Matches B; not reached for C.
        print("B")

Note that if the except clauses were reversed (with except B first), it would have printed B, B — the first matching except clause is triggered, like in the following example:

for cls in [B, C]:
    try:
        raise cls()
    except B:
        # Matches B and C both.
        print("B")
    except C:
        # Not reached (the previous clause ate B and C)
        print("C")

Linked PRs

• gh-136228: Clarify example in exception handling section #136257