better format than using try and except

Question

I have a couple of suggestions:

1. Improve indenting.

At the top of your file you have:

if os.path.exists(file_path)!= True:
    print('\n******* Path does not exist. *******\n')       

    else:

The else statement has to have the same indentation value as the original if.

2. Remove newlines

As you are concerned about taking space up, just remove all the newlines. I would not suggest this because your code can become confusing to read, but if you are a stickler about space, go ahead. I can count 11 newlines, so if you remove those, you've removed ¹⁄₅^th of your file.

3. Be pythonic

If you care about the lines your code is taking up, try to be as pythonic about each line as possible, for future review/editing. Instead of if x in 'Ss': to check if x is an s or S, just do if x.lower() == 's':

4. Format `try... except`

Your try... except's encompass most of your code. Try to only limit them to the line that may raise the error. Here's an example:

try:
    var = int(raw_input())
    x = float(var)/100.0
    if x == 1:
        print 'YAY'
    else:
        print 'BOO!'
    for k in range(1, x):
        print 'this has looped %d times' %(k)
except ValueError:
    print 'Your input is not in a number format!'

In this code, we want to make sure that the input is a number. However, that can only be checked by the first line, and everything else is rubbish. So just surround the first line, and leave the rest untouched.

Note:

Do not remove necessary components from your try... except's, or some arbitrary error may be raised.

5. Shrink your `while` loops

Instead of doing the following code:

while True:
    try:
        size = int(input('\nPlease enter file size: '))
        rr = search_by_size(size, file_path)
        if not rr:
            print('\n***** No file(s) found *****\n')
        else:
            break

    except ValueError:
        print('\n***** Enter an numeric value. *****\n')
        continue

You can do

size = input('\nPlease enter file size: ')
while size.isdigit() == False or not rr = search_by_size(size, file_path):
    size = input('\nPlease enter file size: ')

Your edited code: Original: 59 lines; Edited: 33 lines:

if os.path.exists(file_path)!= True:
    print('\n******* Path does not exist. *******\n')
else:
    while True:
        aa = '''\nWhich search characteristics would you like to use? \n 1. Search by name: N \n 2. Search by extension: E \n 3. Search by size: S
            \n    Please enter your choice: '''
        answer = input(aa).strip()
        if answer not in 'NnEeSs' or answer=='':
            print('\n***** Invalid choice. *****')
        elif answer.lower() == 'n':
            name = input ('\nEnter file name: ')
            try:
                while not search_by_name(name, file_path):
                    name = input ('\nEnter file name: ')
            except WindowsError:
                print('\n***** Oops! Access denied.*****\n')
                continue
        elif answer .lower() == 'e':
            ending = input ('\nEnter the file extension: ')
            try:
                while not search_by_extention(ending, file_path):
                    ending = input ('\nEnter the file extension: ')
            except WindowsError:
                print('\n***** Oops! Access denied. *****\n')
                continue
        elif answer.lower() == 's':
            size = input('\nPlease enter file size: ')
            try:
                while size.isdigit() == False or not search_by_size(size, file_path):
                    size = input('\nPlease enter file size: ')
            except WindowsError:
                print('\n***** Oops! Access denied. *****\n')
                continue