How to catch multiple exceptions in one line (except block) in Python?

In Python, instead of writing separate except blocks for each exception, you can handle multiple exceptions together in a single except block by specifying them as a tuple.

In this example, we are catching both ValueError and TypeError using a single except block -

try:
   x = int("abc")   # Raises ValueError
   y = x + "5"      # Would raise TypeError if above line did not error
except (ValueError, TypeError) as e:
   print("Caught an exception:", e)

The above program will generate the following error -

Caught an exception: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'abc'

Need to Handle Multiple Exceptions in one except?

You can avoid repeating the same code (duplicacy) for different errors by putting multiple exceptions in a single except block. It keeps your error handling simple and organized when you want to do the same thing for different types of errors.

Example: Handling file-related errors together

In this example, we handle both FileNotFoundError and PermissionError together as they require the same response -

try:
   with open("file.txt") as f:
      data = f.read()
except (FileNotFoundError, PermissionError):
   print("Cannot open the file due to missing file or permissions. Creating the file now.")
   with open("file.txt", "w") as f:
      f.write("")  # create an empty file

Following is the output obtained if the file is missing or permission is denied -

Cannot open the file due to missing file or permissions. Creating the file now.

Accessing the exception Object

When catching multiple exceptions, you can assign the exception instance to a variable using the as keyword. This allows you to inspect or log the error message.

Example: Printing the exception Message

In this example, the exception object is captured and printed -

try:
   num = int("xyz")
except (ValueError, TypeError) as error:
   print("Error occurred:", error)

The output is -

Error occurred: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'xyz'

When not to catch Multiple Exceptions together

Sometimes, different exceptions need different handling. In such cases, we need to use separate except blocks instead of grouping them.

Example: Separate except Blocks 

In this example, we handle ValueError and TypeError differently -

try:
   x = int("abc")
   y = x + "5"
except ValueError:
   print("ValueError: Invalid conversion.")
except TypeError:
   print("TypeError: Unsupported operation.")

The output is -

ValueError: Invalid conversion.