We’ve seen how exception handlers get executed when we encounter exceptions during a try clause - but what if we want to run some code only if we do not encounter an exception? Python provides us a way to do this as well - the else clause.

Our updated flow chart shows what happens when an else clause is added to the mix:

Python will only execute the else clause if no exception was encountered in the try clause.

Let’s examine a hypothetical program that authenticates a user. For now, we will use two imaginary functions check_password() and login_user(). Here is what the program looks like:

try:
  check_password()
except ValueError:
  print('Wrong Password! Try again!')
else:
  login_user()
  # 20 other lines of imaginary code

In this program, we can assume if our function check_password() fails, it will return a ValueError. Thankfully, our exception handler takes care of this scenario. However, if our function doesn’t fail, the else clause allows us to log the user in!

Now, one could argue, we could have written our program a different way to achieve a similar outcome:

try:
  check_password()
  login_user()
  # 20 other lines of imaginary code
except ValueError:
  print('Wrong Password! Try again!')

Here, if our check_password() ever fails, we will be able to catch the exception just like before. Python does offer a bit of insight on this scenario in the official documentation:

The use of the else clause is better than adding additional code to the try clause because it avoids accidentally catching an exception that wasn’t raised by the code being protected by the try … except statement.

This suggestion is valid in this case since in the alternative style, the ValueError could occur in any of the other lines of code other than check_password(), and it would be challenging to tell where it came from.

Let’s give the else clause a try!