6.3. pass statement

The pass statement is used to do, well, nothing. Yes you heard that right, pass statement does nothing! You might say it's useless then but it has various uses.

In error handling

In except or other blocks, pass is used to do nothing. Lets say, we've an error handling code that handles an error and simply ignores it, we can use pass there.

try:
    # do something here
    ...
except Exception:
    # do nothing if error occurs
    pass

When Python sees a pass, it does nothing on that line and moves to the next line.

In functions & codeblocks

In functions, pass is used as placeholder for missing code. Sometimes, you write a function definition and leave the body to be written for future.

pass acts as a placeholder to prevent an error from empty code since empty code is not allowed in codeblocks (if, else, loops, functions etc.)

Without passWith pass

# THIS CODE RAISES AN ERROR

def func():

func()

# THIS CODE DOES NOT RAISE AN ERROR

def func():
    pass

func()