CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonexceptionpython-2.7
Ben Mordecai
Ben Mordecai

Reputation: 695

What is the pythonic manner to determine whether this function was successful?

def get_connection_tag(connections_tag, connection_type):
    for child in connections_tag.children:
        concat = "".join(child.attributes)
        if connection_type in concat:
            return child
    return -1

This function behaves as a search function to find if the specified connection_type exists within the connection_tag. If it is successful it returns an element from connections_tag.children, but if unsuccessful it returns -1.

If the search function was successful I want to call a function to modify this child element, but if it is unsuccessful, I want to call a function to generate a child element.

I could simply call isinstance() with the returned child and Class, or I could check to see if the returned child == -1, but I feel like I'm missing a more appropriate way. Perhaps something to do with try/except and raising a TypeError?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 177

Answers (1)

Ifthikhan
Ifthikhan

Reputation: 1474

In this case returning "None" would be more appropriate as it intuitively indicates that no connection was found. Alternatively you could also raise an exception, I usually raise an exception if the execution has to stop or it's a more serious error.

Based on your use case the code would look like this:

tag = get_connection_tag(connections_tag, connection_type)
if not tag:
    pass

Upvotes: 2

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