CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonassert
Dorian Amouroux
Dorian Amouroux

Reputation: 157

Use assert in normal code

I'm writing a python function to validate a token from an email. In the email, there is a url with the endpoint of it. I have two url parameters, the token and email address. In my endpoint I have to check :

I choose to wrap all those checks in a try except block, I will always return the same error "invalid token" so I don't have to precisely check individual error. I used the function assertFalse and assertEqual that will raise an exception if it's not correct.

try:
    # pull from url
    email = request.GET['email']
    value_token = request.GET['token']
    # test if valid
    token = EmailValidationToken.objects.get(token=value_token)
    assertFalse(token.consumed)
    assertEqual(email, token.user.email)
    assertFalse(token.is_expired())
except:
    pass # return error

I like the way I did it because it's super clean. Is it a good practice ? Is there other solution for this problem ?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1443

Answers (1)

TigerhawkT3
TigerhawkT3

Reputation: 49318

No, using assert for control flow rather than debugging is poor practice, because assertions can be turned off. Just use an ordinary if statement.

# pull from url
email = request.GET['email']
value_token = request.GET['token']
# test if valid
token = EmailValidationToken.objects.get(token=value_token)
if token.consumed or email != token.user.email or token.is_expired():
    pass # return error

If you absolutely insist on controlling your program's flow by raising an error (which is a valid thing to do in some cases), do so with raise, e.g. if condition: raise TypeError.

Upvotes: 6

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