I am currently working as consultant for a mid-sized company in Europe, where my goal is to try to keep their old Django application alive (running Django 1.5.5).

A few weeks ago, it became clear to me that the server running the application was down. Something wasn't working properly, and yet the logs were completely silent.

So I said… well, there must be an except: pass somewhere and I started looking for it (so much for my Friday night…)

This code was running somewhere in production.

So I just removed the comments and the code inside each block - everything else I left just as it was.

So, let's imagine for a second that we went back 4 years (November 2013), and that my colleague, named Charlie (random name), had just made a PR to add this code to our codebase.

Let's begin.

Hey Charlie, thanks for the PR.

The code logic looks ok, but there are a few things that I would definitely change.

1. Did you forget the docstring?

Charlie have you read this?

I think it's always good practice to add docstrings: to at least try to explain, even just briefly how your function behaves, and maybe also add something about its parameters.

It could be invaluable for your colleagues or, indeed, anyone who is going to be working on the code in the future (.......).

The name of the function really does not tell us that much about the ‘story’ of your code. A general explanation about how your are dehydrating your data would be very much appreciated!

2. Don't except: pass

Charlie, I see from the PR that you worked on this very late in the evening..... perhaps this explains it.

Nonetheless, what were you trying to do with except: pass

You are silently catching all the errors, without even logging them.

try:
    1/0
except:
    pass

Do you see?

No error is raised, even if we are dividing by zero.

try:
    1/0
    CONSTANT = 0
    CONSTANT["DON-T-EXIST"] = 0
except:
    pass

Same goes here - you are silently catching every kind of exception.

So please:

• remove pass
• log this exception somehow, the logging module is a good place to start.
• be more specific about the exception you want to catch (check the example)
• don't except: pass

# example for Charlie

import logging

log = logging.getLogger(__name__)

try:
    1/0
except ZeroDivisionError:
    log.error("Division by Zero")

Division by Zero

In any case - great job. Keep up the hard work.

And, just in case you have forgotten: - please don't except: pass.

Sincerely, your colleague and a future reader of your code.

Takeaways for the current readers

1. Code Reviews

Do code reviews: - they are extremely useful, not only to pick up on bad practice.

2. Docstrings

Use docstrings: - they will be extremely useful in the future.

3. Catch errors

Try/Except is really powerful, but use it properly: - to catch specific errors and log them.

4. Feedback

Proper feedback is fundamental if you want to grow, both in technical skills and in what are generally called soft skills.

I say proper feedback, because feedback given in the wrong way is probably more harmful than not giving a feedback at all.