Introduction

Error handling is a critical aspect of software development to ensure robustness and reliability. This documentation provides an overview of error handling techniques and best practices to effectively manage and respond to errors in your code.

Table of Contents

1. Exception Handling

2. Logging Errors

3. Error Codes

4. Retry Mechanisms

5. Graceful Degradation

1. Exception Handling

Exception handling allows you to gracefully manage runtime errors in your code. Here is an example of using try-except blocks in Python for handling exceptions:

try:
    # Code that may raise an exception
    result = 10 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
    print("Error: Division by zero")

2. Logging Errors

Logging errors is essential for tracking and debugging issues in your application. Here is an example of logging errors using the Python logging module:

import logging

logging.basicConfig(filename='error.log', level=logging.ERROR)
try:
    result = 10 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
    logging.error("Division by zero error: %s", e)

3. Error Codes

Using error codes can help categorize and identify different types of errors in your application. Here is an example of defining custom error codes in Python:

class CustomError(Exception):
    def __init__(self, code, message):
        self.code = code
        self.message = message

# Raise custom error with error code and message
raise CustomError(500, "Internal Server Error")

4. Retry Mechanisms

Implementing retry mechanisms can help handle transient errors and improve the resilience of your application. Here is an example of implementing a simple retry mechanism in Python:

import time

def retry_operation(max_retries=3):
    retries = 0
    while retries < max_retries:
        try:
            # Code that may fail intermittently
            result = perform_operation()
            break
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Error: {e}. Retrying...")
            retries += 1
            time.sleep(1)

retry_operation()

5. Graceful Degradation

Graceful degradation involves designing your system to continue functioning even when certain components fail. Here is an example of implementing graceful degradation in a web application:

@app.route('/data')
def get_data():
    try:
        data = fetch_data_from_database()
        return jsonify(data)
    except DatabaseConnectionError as e:
        return jsonify({"error": "Database connection error"}), 500

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run()

Conclusion

Effective error handling is crucial for maintaining the stability and reliability of your software applications. By incorporating the error handling techniques and best practices outlined in this documentation, you can enhance the resilience of your codebase and provide a better user experience.For more detailed information on each error handling technique, refer to the respective sections above. Happy coding!