Avoiding syntax error for 'as' statement in python

Question

I am getting a syntax error from python for the 'as' statement. I don't know for sure but I suspect my web server has out of date python.

x@y.com [~/www/dmi-tcat/helpers]# python urlexpand.py
  File "urlexpand.py", line 70
    except HTTPError as e:
                  ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
x@y.com [~/www/dmi-tcat/helpers]# 

Can anyone confirm this and is there a way to write the same piece of code without the as statement? My host doesn't want to upgrade python at the minute.

Answer 1

The older python syntax is

try:
    ...
except HTTPError, e:
    ...

If you want to catch multiple error types, pass a tuple:

try:
    ...
except (AttributeError, TypeError), e:
    ...