Assertions help to debug and test your code. See exceptions.
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def divide(a, b):
assert(b!=0), 'The numerator is 0!'
return a//b
divide(1, 0)
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try:
divide(1, 0)
except Exception as e:
print(e)
Assertions are ignored when the interpreter runs in release (optimized) mode:
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!python -c "assert(False); print('In debug mode this is not printed')"
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!python -O -c "assert(False); print('You are running in optimized mode')"