The last line of the error message indicates what happened. Exceptions come in different types, and the type is printed as part of the message: the types in the example are ZeroDivisionError, NameError and TypeError. The string printed as the exception type is the name of the built-in exception that occurred.

A UnicodeError exception is raised when Python encounters encoding or decoding issues. The reasons for this error include: Conflicts due to mixed encoding in the text. Incorrect byte order marks (BOM) leading to decoding errors. Use of unsupported or mismatched encoding schemes. Conflicts arising from different Unicode standards. Problems with surrogate pairs in UTF-16. Corrupted or incomplete byte sequences. Consider this example where decoding a Unicode string with ASCII results in an error:

April 27, 2026 - Runtime errors occur in a Python program after it passes the syntax check and starts executing, when something goes wrong. Examples of runtime errors in Python include ZeroDivisionError, NameError, TypeError, and ValueError.

A number of built-in exceptions are defined in the Python library. Let's see some common error types. The following table lists important built-in exceptions in Python. The IndexError is thrown when trying to access an item at an invalid index. Example: IndexError Copy ·

May 29, 2026 - Python uses indentation (spaces or tabs at the beginning of a line) to define blocks of code. An IndentationError occurs when the indentation is missing or incorrect. Example: Here, the code gives an IndentationError because the statement inside the if block is not indented properly. ... Logical errors are mistakes in the program logic that cause incorrect output even though the code runs successfully.

Some built-in exceptions (like OSError) expect a certain number of arguments and assign a special meaning to the elements of this tuple, while others are usually called only with a single string giving an error message. ... This method sets tb as the new traceback for the exception and returns the exception object. It was more commonly used before the exception chaining features of PEP 3134 became available. The following example shows how we can convert an instance of SomeException into an instance of OtherException while preserving the traceback.

January 3, 2025 - For additional insights on logging best practices in Python, explore our article on Python Logging Best Practices. Runtime errors occur while your program is running. These errors are typically caused by invalid operations or other unexpected conditions that arise as the program executes. They can crash your program if not handled properly. ... In this example, dividing by zero will raise a ZeroDivisionError during runtime, leading to a program crash.

If not handled properly, it prints a traceback to that error along with some details about why that error occurred. ... Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module> ZeroDivisionError: division by zero · Here, while trying to divide 7 / 0, the program throws a system exception ZeroDivisionError · Illegal operations can raise exceptions. There are plenty of built-in exceptions in Python that are raised when corresponding errors occur.

Dividing any number by zero is mathematically undefined and results in a runtime error. ... OverflowError occurs when a numerical operation results in a number too large to be represented within Python’s numeric limits (mostly for floating-point numbers). Example with the math module’s ...

July 31, 2025 - Learn how to handle various types of errors in Python with examples. Enhance your coding expertise by mastering error identification and resolution techniques.

December 11, 2025 - These errors are usually caught by Python's interpreter when you try to run the code. ... Double-check your code for typos or other mistakes before running it. Use a code editor that supports syntax highlighting to help you catch syntax errors. Read the error message carefully to determine the location of the error. ... In this example, we are trying to assign the value 10 to the variable x using the assignment operator (=) inside an if statement.

January 16, 2026 - What it means: Python couldn’t understand your sentence. Common causes: Missing a colon (:) Forgetting a closing parenthesis · Writing Java/C-style code in Python · Example: if x > 5 print(x) Quick fix: Read the line above the error.

March 20, 2025 - SyntaxError is Python’s way of enforcing its grammar rules. While I recommend you rely on modern IDEs to catch most basic syntax issues, some of these errors can still creep into your codebase, especially when dealing with complex language features or, say, during rapid development cycles.

# Example of a SyntaxError: Missing colon number = 10 if number > 5 print("Number is greater than 5") If you try to run this code, Python will stop and point out the problem before executing any of it: File "your_script_name.py", line 3 if number > 5 ^ SyntaxError: expected ':' The error message usually tells you the file name (your_script_name.py), the line number where the error was detected (line 3), and sometimes uses a caret (^) to indicate the exact position of the problem.

Python will try to process all the statements inside the try block. If a ValueError occurs at any point as it is executing them, the flow of control will immediately pass to the except block, and any remaining statements in the try block will be skipped. In this example, we know that the error is likely to occur when we try to convert the user’s input to an integer.

August 7, 2025 - Here is a code example to illustrate this error: ... In this example, referencing the ‘var’ variable before its assignment within the ‘test’ function will result in an UnboundLocalError. In Python, an ImportError occurs when the import statement fails to import a module.

Also, Python is whitespace-sensitive, so all lines in the body of an if statement or a for must be indented. x = 2 if x % 2 == 0: print("even") IndentationError: expected an indented block · A name error occurs when a local or global variable, function, or module name is not found. This can occur due to ... For example, if instead of print("hello"), we forget the quotation marks for a string and write the following, we get a name error:

For example, this custom error message clearly states that the age must be a positive number: raise ValueError("Age must be a positive number.") ... Exception handling is essential for making Python programs more reliable.