is there a pythonic way to try something up to a maximum number of times? [duplicate]

Answer 1

How about:

conn = MySQLdb.connect(host, user, password, database)
cursor = conn.cursor()
attempts = 0

while attempts < 3:
    try:
        cursor.execute(query)
        rows = cursor.fetchall()
        for row in rows:
            # do something with the data
        break
    except MySQLdb.Error, e:
        attempts += 1
        print "MySQL Error %d: %s" % (e.args[0], e.args[1])

Answer 2

You can use a for loop with an else clause for maximum effect:

conn = MySQLdb.connect(host, user, password, database)
cursor = conn.cursor()

for n in range(3):
    try:
        cursor.execute(query)
    except MySQLdb.Error, e:
        print "MySQL Error %d: %s" % (e.args[0], e.args[1])
    else:
        rows = cursor.fetchall()
        for row in rows:
            # do something with the data
        break
else:
    # All attempts failed, raise a real error or whatever

The key is to break out of the loop as soon as the query succeeds. The else clause will only be triggered if the loop completes without a break.

Answer 3

conn = MySQLdb.connect(host, user, password, database)
cursor = conn.cursor()

for i in range(3):
    try:
        cursor.execute(query)
        rows = cursor.fetchall()
        for row in rows:
            # do something with the data
        break
    except MySQLdb.Error, e:
        print "MySQL Error %d: %s" % (e.args[0], e.args[1])

Answer 4

def successful_transaction(transaction):
    try:
        transaction()
        return True
    except SQL...:
        return False

succeeded = any(successful_transaction(transaction)
                for transaction in repeat(transaction, 3))

Answer 5

I'd refactor it like so:

def callee(cursor):
    cursor.execute(query)
    rows = cursor.fetchall()
    for row in rows:
        # do something with the data

def caller(attempt_count=3, wait_interval=20):
    """:param wait_interval: In seconds."""
    conn = MySQLdb.connect(host, user, password, database)
    cursor = conn.cursor()
    for attempt_number in range(attempt_count):
        try:
            callee(cursor)
        except MySQLdb.Error, e:
            logging.warn("MySQL Error %d: %s", e.args[0], e.args[1])
            time.sleep(wait_interval)
        else:
            break

Factoring out the callee function seems to break up the functionality so that it's easy to see the business logic without getting bogged down in the retry code.

Answer 6

Like S.Lott, I like a flag to check if we're done:

conn = MySQLdb.connect(host, user, password, database)
cursor = conn.cursor()

success = False
attempts = 0

while attempts < 3 and not success:
    try:
        cursor.execute(query)
        rows = cursor.fetchall()
        for row in rows:
            # do something with the data
        success = True 
    except MySQLdb.Error, e:
        print "MySQL Error %d: %s" % (e.args[0], e.args[1])
        attempts += 1