Moving along through our in-depth Python Exception Handling series, today we'll dig into the AttributeError. The AttributeError in Python is raised when an invalid attribute reference is made, or when an attribute assignment fails. While most objects support attributes, those that do not will merely raise a TypeError when an attribute access attempt is made.
Throughout this article we'll examine the AttributeError by looking at where it sits in the larger Python Exception Class Hierarchy. We'll also discover a bit about how attributes and attribute references work in Python, then look at some functional sample code illustrating how to handle built-in and custom attribute access, and how doing so can raise AttributeErrors in your own code. Let's get started!
The Technical Rundown
All Python exceptions inherit from the BaseException class, or extend from an inherited class therein. The full exception hierarchy of this error is:
BaseExceptionExceptionAttributeError
Full Code Sample
Below is the full code sample we'll be using in this article. It can be copied and pasted if you'd like to play with the code yourself and see how everything works.
import datetimefrom gw_utility.book import Book
from gw_utility.logging import Loggingdef main():
test()def test():
try:
Logging.line_separator("CREATE BOOK", 50, '+')
# Create and output book.
book = Book("The Hobbit", "J.R.R. Tolkien", 366, datetime.date(1937, 9, 15))
Logging.log(book)# Output valid attributes.
Logging.log(book.title)
Logging.log(book.author)# Output invalid attribute (publisher).
Logging.log(book.publisher)
except AttributeError as error:
# Output expected AttributeErrors.
Logging.log_exception(error)
except Exception as exception:
# Output unexpected Exceptions.
Logging.log_exception(exception, False)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
import datetimeclass Book:
author: str
page_count: int
publication_date: datetime.date
title: strdef __eq__(self, other):
"""Determines if passed object is equivalent to current object."""
return self.__dict__ == other.__dict__def __init__(self,
title: str = None,
author: str = None,
page_count: int = None,
publication_date: datetime.date = None):
"""Initializes Book instance.:param title: Title of Book.
:param author: Author of Book.
:param page_count: Page Count of Book.
:param publication_date: Publication Date of Book.
"""
self.author = author
self.page_count = page_count
self.publication_date = publication_date
self.title = titledef __getattr__(self, name: str):
"""Returns the attribute matching passed name."""
# Get internal dict value matching name.
value = self.__dict__.get(name)
if not value:
# Raise AttributeError if attribute value not found.
raise AttributeError(f'{self.__class__.__name__}.{name} is invalid.')
# Return attribute value.
return valuedef __len__(self):
"""Returns the length of title."""
return len(self.title)
def __str__(self):
"""Returns a formatted string representation of Book."""
date = '' if self.publication_date is None else f', published on {self.publication_date.__format__("%B %d, %Y")}'
return f'\'{self.title}\' by {self.author} at {self.page_count} pages{date}.'
import math
import sys
import tracebackclass Logging:
separator_character_default = '-'
separator_length_default = 40@classmethod
def __output(cls, *args, sep: str = ' ', end: str = '\n', file=None):
"""Prints the passed value(s) to the console.:param args: Values to output.
:param sep: String inserted between values, default a space.
:param end: String appended after the last value, default a newline.
:param file: A file-like object (stream); defaults to the current sys.stdout.
:return: None
"""
print(*args, sep=sep, end=end, file=file)@classmethod
def line_separator(cls, value: str = None, length: int = separator_length_default,
char: str = separator_character_default):
"""Print a line separator with inserted text centered in the middle.:param value: Inserted text to be centered.
:param length: Total separator length.
:param char: Separator character.
"""
output = value# If no value passed, output separator of length.
if value == None or len(value) == 0:
output = f'{char * length}'
elif len(value) < length:
# Update length based on insert length, less a space for margin.
length -= len(value) + 2
# Halve the length and floor left side.
left = math.floor(length / 2)
right = left
# If odd number, add dropped remainder to right side.
if length % 2 != 0:
right += 1# Surround insert with separators.
output = f'{char * left} {value} {char * right}'cls.__output(output)
@classmethod
def log(cls, *args, sep: str = ' ', end: str = '\n', file=None):
"""Prints the passed value(s) to the console.:param args: Values to output.
:param sep: String inserted between values, default a space.
:param end: String appended after the last value, default a newline.
:param file: A file-like object (stream); defaults to the current sys.stdout.
"""
cls.__output(*args, sep=sep, end=end, file=file)@classmethod
def log_exception(cls, exception: BaseException, expected: bool = True):
"""Prints the passed BaseException to the console, including traceback.:param exception: The BaseException to output.
:param expected: Determines if BaseException was expected.
"""
output = "[{}] {}: {}".format('EXPECTED' if expected else 'UNEXPECTED', type(exception).__name__, exception)
cls.__output(output)
exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback = sys.exc_info()
traceback.print_tb(exc_traceback)
When Should You Use It?
As previously mentioned, the AttributeError is raised when attempting to access an invalid attribute of an object. The typically way to access an attribute is through an attribute reference syntax form, which is to separate the primary (the object instance) and the attribute identifier name with a period (.). For example, person.name would attempt to retrieve the name attribute of the person object.
When evoking an attribute reference, under the hood Python expects to find the attribute that was directly accessed. If it fails to locate a matching attribute it will then call the __getattr__() method of the object, which performs a less efficient lookup of the instance attribute. If this also fails to find a matching attribute then an AttributeError is raised to indicate that an invalid attribute was accessed.
To illustrate with a code example we start with a modified Book class:
import datetimeclass Book:
author: str
page_count: int
publication_date: datetime.date
title: strdef __eq__(self, other):
"""Determines if passed object is equivalent to current object."""
return self.__dict__ == other.__dict__def __init__(self,
title: str = None,
author: str = None,
page_count: int = None,
publication_date: datetime.date = None):
"""Initializes Book instance.:param title: Title of Book.
:param author: Author of Book.
:param page_count: Page Count of Book.
:param publication_date: Publication Date of Book.
"""
self.author = author
self.page_count = page_count
self.publication_date = publication_date
self.title = titledef __getattr__(self, name: str):
"""Returns the attribute matching passed name."""
# Get internal dict value matching name.
value = self.__dict__.get(name)
if not value:
# Raise AttributeError if attribute value not found.
raise AttributeError(f'{self.__class__.__name__}.{name} is invalid.')
# Return attribute value.
return valuedef __len__(self):
"""Returns the length of title."""
return len(self.title)
def __str__(self):
"""Returns a formatted string representation of Book."""
date = '' if self.publication_date is None else f', published on {self.publication_date.__format__("%B %d, %Y")}'
return f'\'{self.title}\' by {self.author} at {self.page_count} pages{date}.'
Notice that we've explicitly overriden the __getattr__(self, name: str) method of the base object class. This allows us to perform any custom logic that might be necessary when an attribute is not immediately located. To test this our test() method creates a new Book instance, outputs some explicit attributes to the log to prove everything works, and then attempts to directly access an invalid attribute of book.publisher:
import datetimefrom gw_utility.book import Book
from gw_utility.logging import Loggingdef main():
test()def test():
try:
Logging.line_separator("CREATE BOOK", 50, '+')
# Create and output book.
book = Book("The Hobbit", "J.R.R. Tolkien", 366, datetime.date(1937, 9, 15))
Logging.log(book)# Output valid attributes.
Logging.log(book.title)
Logging.log(book.author)# Output invalid attribute (publisher).
Logging.log(book.publisher)
except AttributeError as error:
# Output expected AttributeErrors.
Logging.log_exception(error)
except Exception as exception:
# Output unexpected Exceptions.
Logging.log_exception(exception, False)if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
Executing this code produces the following output:
++++++++++++++++++ CREATE BOOK +++++++++++++++++++
'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkien at 366 pages, published on September 15, 1937.
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
[EXPECTED] AttributeError: Book.publisher is invalid.
As you can see, everything worked fine until our attempt to acccess the book.publisher attribute, at which point the overridden Book.__getattr__() method was invoked, in which we raised an AttributeError with the custom error message seen above.
However, there's no reason to override the __getattr()__ method if custom logic isn't required. To illustrate this we'll temporarily comment out our Book.__getattr__() method so the built-in __getattr__() method is invoked instead. Rerunning our code now produces the following output with a slightly different AttributeError message:
++++++++++++++++++ CREATE BOOK +++++++++++++++++++
'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkien at 366 pages, published on September 15, 1937.
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
[EXPECTED] AttributeError: 'Book' object has no attribute 'publisher'
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