hasattr() vs try-except block to deal with non-existent attributes

Question

if hasattr(obj, \'attribute\'):
    # do somthing

vs

try:
    # access obj.attribute
except AttributeError, e:
    # deal with Attr         


        

Answer 1

If it's just one attribute you're testing, I'd say use hasattr. However, if you're doing several accesses to attributes which may or may not exist then using a try block may save you some typing.