Handling exceptions from urllib2 and mechanize in Python -

i novice @ using exception handling. using mechanize module scrape several websites. program fails because connection slow , because requests timeout. able retry website (on timeout, instance) 5 times after 30 second delays between each try.

i looked @ this stackoverflow answer , can see how can handle various exceptions. see (although looks clumsy) how can put try/exception inside while loop control 5 attempts ... not understand how break out of loop, or "continue" when connection successful , no exception has been thrown.

from mechanize import browser import time  b = browser() tried=0 while tried < 5:   try:     r=b.open('http://www.google.com/foobar')   except (mechanize.httperror,mechanize.urlerror) e:     if isinstance(e,mechanize.httperror):       print e.code       tried += 1       sleep(30)       if tried > 4:         exit()     else:       print e.reason.args       tried += 1       sleep(30)       if tried > 4:         exit()  print "how can here after first successful b.open() attempt????" 

i appreciate advice (1) how break out of loop on successful open, , (2) how make whole block less clumsy/more elegant.

you don't have repeat things in except block in either case.

from mechanize import browser import time  b = browser() tried=0 while true:   try:     r=b.open('http://www.google.com/foobar')   except (mechanize.httperror,mechanize.urlerror) e:       tried += 1     if isinstance(e,mechanize.httperror):       print e.code     else:       print e.reason.args     if tried > 4:       exit()     sleep(30)     continue   break 

also, may able use while not r: depending on browser.open returns.

edit: roadierich showed more elegant way with

try:   dosomething()   break except:   ... 

because error skips except block.