Why am I getting a SyntaxError in the Python interpreter?

Question

This code works when I try it from a .py file, but fails in the command line interpreter and Idle.

>>> try:
...     fsock = open(\"/bla\")
... excep         


        

Answer 1

Try this one in the interpreter:

try:
    fsock = open("/bla")
except IOError:
    print "Caught"

print "continue"

Important here is the empty line after the indentation. I'm using the python 2.6 interpreter and it throws the same Syntax error as you.

This is because the interpreter expects single blocks separated by blank lines. Additionally the blank line (two new line characters) indicates the end of the block and that the interpreter should execute it.