At some point in your development career—probably by the time you write your first script—you will have encountered a Python error and received a "Traceback" message. The Traceback provides the context of the error and pinpoints the line that caused the issue. The issue itself is an exception and a message of the error (even if it isn't very descriptive or helpful).

Python has a number of built-in exceptions whose purpose is to help the developer in diagnosing errors in their code. This section contains faulty exception-producing code and solutions. The idea is to learn what not to do from bad examples. This is not, however, an exhaustive listing as some less common, module-specific, and user-created exceptions are not covered. A full listing of built-in exceptions can be found at https://docs.python.org/2/library/exceptions.html.

Many Python scripters, developers, and hobbyists have shared their solutions for troubleshooting on a variety of websites and forums, such as https://www.stackoverflow.com. We invite you to search for clever solutions to problems you may face in your own code. Good search results are usually found by searches containing the word Python, the exception class name and a segment of the exception message. More likely than not someone has experienced, solved, and posted their thoughts on the error you are faced with. Additionally, members of the Python community likely post a contact link, email, or repository issues page allowing you to view prior questions and solutions.