Catching Python exceptions using 'expect' method?

import sys
try:
     file = open("words.txt")
expect(IOError):

if file:
    print "%s" % file
else:
    print "Cant the %s file" % "words.txt"

this gives me an a error -

File "main.py", line 4 
    expect(IOError):
    SyntaxError: invaild syntax

What im going wrong/ how do you fix this

From stackoverflow

• Actually, it is except as in exception:

  For instance:

  except IOError:
      print "Error opening file!"
  

• It's except. Read this.

• I think you're looking for except. The error handling part of the python tutorial explains it well.

  -John

• I assume you are trying to handle exceptions. In that case, use except, not expect. In any case except is not a function, rather it precedes a block of error handling code. When using files, you may want to look at the with statement and try-except-finally. The correction to your code is-

  import sys
  try:
          file = open("words.txt")
  except IOError:
        #Handle error
        pass
  if file:
      print "%s" % file
  else:
      print "Cant the %s file" % "words.txt"
  

  I hope this helps.

• 
  >>> try:
  ...     f = open('words.txt')
  ... except IOError:
  ...     print "Cant the %s file" % "words.txt"
  ... else:
  ...     print "%s" % f