NotImplemented is not an Exception¶
ID: py/raise-not-implemented
Kind: problem
Security severity:
Severity: warning
Precision: very-high
Tags:
- reliability
- maintainability
Query suites:
- python-security-and-quality.qls
Click to see the query in the CodeQL repository
NotImplemented is not an Exception, but is often mistakenly used in place of NotImplementedError. Executing raise NotImplemented or raise NotImplemented() will raise a TypeError. When raise NotImplemented is used to mark code that is genuinely never called, this mistake is benign. However, should it be called, then a TypeError will be raised rather than the expected NotImplemented, which might make debugging the issue difficult.
The correct use of NotImplemented is to implement binary operators. Code that is not intended to be called should raise NotImplementedError.
Recommendation¶
Replace uses of NotImplemented with NotImplementedError.
Example¶
In the example below, the method wrong will incorrectly raise a TypeError when called. The method right will raise a NotImplementedError.
class Abstract(object):
def wrong(self):
# Will raise a TypeError
raise NotImplemented()
def right(self):
raise NotImplementedError()
References¶
Python Language Reference: The NotImplementedError exception.
Python Language Reference: Emulating numeric types.