Unclear if exception should be set

[jankratochvil]

BPO	10057
Nosy	@loewis

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2010-10-09.18:30:37.293>
created_at = <Date 2010-10-09.18:01:58.958>
labels = ['invalid', 'docs']
title = 'Unclear if exception should be set'
updated_at = <Date 2010-10-09.18:30:37.292>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/jankratochvil'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2010-10-09.18:30:37.292>
actor = 'jankratochvil'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2010-10-09.18:30:37.293>
closer = 'jankratochvil'
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2010-10-09.18:01:58.958>
creator = 'jankratochvil'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 10057
keywords = []
message_count = 3.0
messages = ['118281', '118282', '118283']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'jankratochvil', 'docs@python']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue10057'
versions = ['Python 3.1', 'Python 2.7']

[jankratochvil]

http://docs.python.org/py3k/c-api/object.html
PyObject_GetItem
Return element [...] or NULL on failure.

Found element => return its pointer.
Found no element => return NULL (with no exception set).

But it is unclear whether the function can also:
Error happened => return NULL with an exception set.

It affects multiple versions of the doc, did not check which all.

[loewis]

I find it quite clear. "failure" not only means that no item was found, but also that the operation failed, i.e. raised an exception. In general, a NULL pointer returned from a function that returns PyObject* *always* means that there is an exception. There is no need to repeat that every time.

[jankratochvil]

OK, I am not used to Python, thanks.