(1) add a get() method like dicts have, (2) throw KeyError, not Exception, when a column isn't found

pandas/core/frame.py

@@ -1062,7 +1062,7 @@ def _getitem_array(self, key):
             indexer = self.columns.get_indexer(key)
             mask = indexer == -1
             if mask.any():
-                raise Exception("No column(s) named: %s" % str(key[mask]))
+                raise KeyError("No column(s) named: %s" % str(key[mask]))
             return self.reindex(columns=key)
 
     def _slice(self, slobj, axis=0):
@@ -1203,6 +1203,13 @@ def pop(self, item):
         """
         return NDFrame.pop(self, item)
 
+    def get(self, column, default=None):
+        try:
+            return self[column]
+        except KeyError:
+            return default
+        
+
     # to support old APIs
     @property
     def _series(self):