Using Try Except to iterate through a list in Python

Question

I'm trying to iterate through a list of NFL QBs (over 100) and add create a list of links that I will use later.

The links follow a standard format, however if there are multiple players with the same name (such as 'Josh Allen') the link format needs to change.

I've been trying to do this with different nested while/for loops with Try/Except with little to no success. This is what I have so far:

test = ['Josh Allen', 'Lamar Jackson', 'Derek Carr']

empty_list=[]

name_int = 0

for names in test:
    try:
        q_b_name = names.split()
        link1=q_b_name[1][0].capitalize()
        link2=q_b_name[1][0:4].capitalize()+q_b_name[0][0:2].capitalize()+f'0{name_int}'
        q_b = pd.read_html(f'https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/{link1}/{link2}/gamelog/')
        q_b1 = q_b[0]

        #filter_status is a function that only works with QB data
        df = filter_stats(q_b1)
        #triggers the try if the link wasn't a QB
        df.head(5)

        empty_list.append(f'https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/{link1}/{link2}/gamelog/')



    except:
        #adds one to the variable to change the link to find the proper QB link
        name_int += 1

The result only appends the final correct link. I need to append each correct link to the empty list.

Still a beginner in Python and trying to challenge myself with different projects. Thanks!

Answer 1

As stated, the try/except will work in that it will try the code under the try block. If at any point within that block it fails or raises and exception/error, it goes and executes the block of code under the except.

There are better ways to go about this problem (for example, I'd use BeautifulSoup to simply check the html for the "QB" position), but since you are a beginner, I think trying to learn this process will help you understand the loops.

So what this code does:

• 1 It formats your player name into the link format.
• 2 We initialize a while loop that will it will enter
• 3 It gets the table.
• 4a) It enters a function that checks if the table contains 'passing' stats by looking at the column headers.
• 4b) If it finds 'passing' in the column, it will return a True statement to indicate it is a "QB" type of table (keep in mind sometimes there might be runningbacks or other positions who have passing stats, but we'll ignore that). If it returns True, the while loop will stop and go to the next name in your test list
• 4c) If it returns False, it'll increment your name_int and check the next one
• 5 To take care of a case where it never finds a QB table, the while loop will go to False if it tries 10 iterations

Code:

import pandas as pd

def check_stats(q_b1):
    for col in q_b1.columns:
        if 'passing' in col.lower():
            return True
    return False
    
test = ['Josh Allen', 'Lamar Jackson', 'Derek Carr']

empty_list=[]
for names in test:
    name_int = 0
    q_b_name = names.split()
    link1=q_b_name[1][0].capitalize()
        
    qbStatsInTable = False
    while qbStatsInTable == False:
        link2=q_b_name[1][0:4].capitalize()+q_b_name[0][0:2].capitalize()+f'0{name_int}'
        url = f'https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/{link1}/{link2}/gamelog/'
        
        try:
            q_b = pd.read_html(url, header=0)
            q_b1 = q_b[0]
        except Exception as e:
            print(e)
            break
            
        
        #Check if "passing" in the table columns
        qbStatsInTable = check_stats(q_b1)
            
        if qbStatsInTable == True:
            print(f'{names} - Found QB Stats in {link1}/{link2}/gamelog/')
            empty_list.append(f'https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/{link1}/{link2}/gamelog/')
        else:
            name_int += 1
            
        if name_int == 10:
            print(f'Did not find a link for {names}')
            qbStatsInTable = False

Output:

print(empty_list)
['https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AlleJo02/gamelog/', 'https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/J/JackLa00/gamelog/', 'https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CarrDe02/gamelog/']