


Ask Forgiveness, Not Permission: When Is This Programming Style Appropriate?
Dec 15, 2024 am 09:21 AM"Ask Forgiveness Not Permission" in Programming
The phrase "ask forgiveness not permission" is often used to describe a programming style that favors simplicity and robustness over correctness. This style is based on the idea that it is better to catch exceptions and handle them gracefully than to try to anticipate every possible failure and write code to prevent it.
Asking for Permission vs. Asking for Forgiveness
In the "ask for permission" style, code is written in a way that checks for conditions that may cause an exception before performing any action that could result in an exception. For example:
if os.path.exists(filename): with open(filename) as f: data = f.read() else: raise FileNotFoundError(f"File {filename} not found.")
In the "ask for forgiveness" style, code is written to simply try to perform the action and catch any exceptions that may occur:
try: with open(filename) as f: data = f.read() except FileNotFoundError: print(f"File {filename} not found.")
Why "Ask Forgiveness" Is Preferred
There are two main reasons why the "ask forgiveness" style is generally preferred over the "ask for permission" style:
1. Concurrency Issues:
In a concurrent environment, such as a multithreaded program or a program that interacts with external resources, the state of the system can change between the time when a permission check is made and the time when the action is performed. This can lead to incorrect results or exceptions being thrown unnecessarily.
2. Overly Restrictive Permission Checks:
Permission checks can be overly restrictive, preventing code from performing actions that are actually possible. For example, checking for file existence before opening it can fail if the file is created after the check but before the open operation.
When to Use "Ask Forgiveness"
The "ask forgiveness" style is appropriate when:
- The operation is likely to fail in predictable and recoverable ways.
- The cost of checking for permission is high.
- The permission check can change between the time of the check and the time of the operation.
Example
The example provided in the question demonstrates an appropriate use of the "ask for forgiveness" style. Checking for the presence of the bar attribute before accessing it can fail if the attribute is set later. Instead, the code should simply try to access the attribute and catch any AttributeError exception that may occur.
It is important to note that the "ask forgiveness" style does not mean that coders should be sloppy or write code that is prone to exceptions. Rather, it suggests that it is better to handle exceptions gracefully than to try to anticipate every possible failure.
The above is the detailed content of Ask Forgiveness, Not Permission: When Is This Programming Style Appropriate?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

Hot Topics

Polymorphism is a core concept in Python object-oriented programming, referring to "one interface, multiple implementations", allowing for unified processing of different types of objects. 1. Polymorphism is implemented through method rewriting. Subclasses can redefine parent class methods. For example, the spoke() method of Animal class has different implementations in Dog and Cat subclasses. 2. The practical uses of polymorphism include simplifying the code structure and enhancing scalability, such as calling the draw() method uniformly in the graphical drawing program, or handling the common behavior of different characters in game development. 3. Python implementation polymorphism needs to satisfy: the parent class defines a method, and the child class overrides the method, but does not require inheritance of the same parent class. As long as the object implements the same method, this is called the "duck type". 4. Things to note include the maintenance

Parameters are placeholders when defining a function, while arguments are specific values ??passed in when calling. 1. Position parameters need to be passed in order, and incorrect order will lead to errors in the result; 2. Keyword parameters are specified by parameter names, which can change the order and improve readability; 3. Default parameter values ??are assigned when defined to avoid duplicate code, but variable objects should be avoided as default values; 4. args and *kwargs can handle uncertain number of parameters and are suitable for general interfaces or decorators, but should be used with caution to maintain readability.

Iterators are objects that implement __iter__() and __next__() methods. The generator is a simplified version of iterators, which automatically implement these methods through the yield keyword. 1. The iterator returns an element every time he calls next() and throws a StopIteration exception when there are no more elements. 2. The generator uses function definition to generate data on demand, saving memory and supporting infinite sequences. 3. Use iterators when processing existing sets, use a generator when dynamically generating big data or lazy evaluation, such as loading line by line when reading large files. Note: Iterable objects such as lists are not iterators. They need to be recreated after the iterator reaches its end, and the generator can only traverse it once.

A class method is a method defined in Python through the @classmethod decorator. Its first parameter is the class itself (cls), which is used to access or modify the class state. It can be called through a class or instance, which affects the entire class rather than a specific instance; for example, in the Person class, the show_count() method counts the number of objects created; when defining a class method, you need to use the @classmethod decorator and name the first parameter cls, such as the change_var(new_value) method to modify class variables; the class method is different from the instance method (self parameter) and static method (no automatic parameters), and is suitable for factory methods, alternative constructors, and management of class variables. Common uses include:

The key to dealing with API authentication is to understand and use the authentication method correctly. 1. APIKey is the simplest authentication method, usually placed in the request header or URL parameters; 2. BasicAuth uses username and password for Base64 encoding transmission, which is suitable for internal systems; 3. OAuth2 needs to obtain the token first through client_id and client_secret, and then bring the BearerToken in the request header; 4. In order to deal with the token expiration, the token management class can be encapsulated and automatically refreshed the token; in short, selecting the appropriate method according to the document and safely storing the key information is the key.

Python's magicmethods (or dunder methods) are special methods used to define the behavior of objects, which start and end with a double underscore. 1. They enable objects to respond to built-in operations, such as addition, comparison, string representation, etc.; 2. Common use cases include object initialization and representation (__init__, __repr__, __str__), arithmetic operations (__add__, __sub__, __mul__) and comparison operations (__eq__, ___lt__); 3. When using it, make sure that their behavior meets expectations. For example, __repr__ should return expressions of refactorable objects, and arithmetic methods should return new instances; 4. Overuse or confusing things should be avoided.

Pythonmanagesmemoryautomaticallyusingreferencecountingandagarbagecollector.Referencecountingtrackshowmanyvariablesrefertoanobject,andwhenthecountreacheszero,thememoryisfreed.However,itcannothandlecircularreferences,wheretwoobjectsrefertoeachotherbuta

Python's garbage collection mechanism automatically manages memory through reference counting and periodic garbage collection. Its core method is reference counting, which immediately releases memory when the number of references of an object is zero; but it cannot handle circular references, so a garbage collection module (gc) is introduced to detect and clean the loop. Garbage collection is usually triggered when the reference count decreases during program operation, the allocation and release difference exceeds the threshold, or when gc.collect() is called manually. Users can turn off automatic recycling through gc.disable(), manually execute gc.collect(), and adjust thresholds to achieve control through gc.set_threshold(). Not all objects participate in loop recycling. If objects that do not contain references are processed by reference counting, it is built-in
