[Error Handling]: ImportError while importing test module (Error-Handling Messaging & Exercises)

Good day. I first offer the obligatory “I’m not GitHub-savvy” apology. I did look for an answer as prescribed here, following steps in subheading Opening an Issue. But I have not seen anything. I’ve seen some fixes on Stack Overflow. But they make no sense to me. Please don’t crush me if I’m doing this wrong.

I’m working on a new linux install. On my previous installation, I ran pytest successfully many times (28 to be precise). With this new installation, I’ve run it once successfully on exercise Twelve Days of Christmas. It’s giving me this error now:

$ /home/dan/.local/bin/pytest meetup_test.py 
============================= test session starts ==============================
platform linux -- Python 3.8.5, pytest-6.1.2, py-1.9.0, pluggy-0.13.1
rootdir: /home/dan/exercism/python/meetup
collected 0 items / 1 error                                                    

==================================== ERRORS ====================================
_______________________ ERROR collecting meetup_test.py ________________________
ImportError while importing test module '/home/dan/exercism/python/meetup/meetup_test.py'.
Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names.
Traceback:
/usr/lib/python3.8/importlib/__init__.py:127: in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
meetup_test.py:4: in <module>
    from meetup import meetup, MeetupDayException
E   ImportError: cannot import name 'MeetupDayException' from 'meetup' (/home/dan/exercism/python/meetup/meetup.py)
=========================== short test summary info ============================
ERROR meetup_test.py
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interrupted: 1 error during collection !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
=============================== 1 error in 0.09s ===============================
$

I tried removing the meetup directory and re-downloading from the CLI. I get this error no matter what the contents of meetup.py are. So, I’m guessing that I have some issue either with they way pytest is configured or with my meetup_pytest file.

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much. Dan.

[cmccandless]

@BethanyG I would like to leave this open as a reference issue until we’ve made the changes we talked about.

[BethanyG]

Hi @dan9731 👋

Since @NobbZ is in CET, I’m picking this up. (I’m in PST). Apologies - the test file for this exercise appears to have been updated since you last worked on/ran it, and it is indeed expecting you to define a MeetupDayException class.

To get around this (temporarily) you can add the following to the top of your meetup_test.py file, directly below the line that says from meetup import meetup, MeetupDayException, and remove MeetupDayException from the import line, so that the two look like this:

from meetup import meetup

try:  
 from meetup import MeetupDayException  
except ImportError:  
 MeetupDayException = Exception

That way, you can run and work on any tests that might be failing right now for you. When I ran your code, it looks as though 7 of the 90 tests have failed – mostly for ValueErrors where the day is out of range for the month.

To fully pass all the tests without the test file modification, you will need to make a custom MeetupDayException Class by subclassing Exception. Something along the lines of this:

class MeetupDayException(Exception):
    """Exception raised when the meetup day is not valid or in range..

    Attributes:
        day -- the day that is causing the error
        message -- explanation of the error
    """

    def __init__(self, day, message="Isn't valid as a proposed meetup date.  Please try another."):
        self.day = day
        self.message = message
        super().__init__(self.message)



def meetup(year, month, week, day_of_week):
    try:
        meetup = meetup_check(year, month, week, day_of_week)
    except Exception as err:
        raise MeetupDayException(f'{day_of_week}, week {week}, in {month}, of {year}')

As you can see, I’ve made a function that is named meetup() that calls a function called meetup_check() (which is what I renamed your meetup() function to). You probably want to be more targeted in the errors you catch/raise – so you can raise the exception specifically/directly as ValueErrors or IndexErrors get caught within your code – but this was quicker for me to demonstrate.

For more detail on how to create/customize and handle errors, take a look at the docs here.

Please let us know if this works for you, and if you have any additional questions or issues.

Best, Bethany