KeyboardInterrupt

KeyboardInterrupt Occurs When

The user presses Ctrl+C during a program’s execution.

KeyboardInterrupt Can Be Used When

• Stopping a running program during an infinite loop or long computation
• Interrupting a script that waits for user input or a network response
• Testing and debugging purposes to halt execution without modifying the code

KeyboardInterrupt Example

An example of when the exception appears:

>>> while True:
...     print("This will run forever unless interrupted")
...
This will run forever unless interrupted
This will run forever unless interrupted
This will run forever unless interrupted
This will run forever unless interrupted
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
KeyboardInterrupt

In production code, you shouldn’t catch this exception, as doing so could prevent users from stopping the program execution when necessary. Raising KeyboardInterrupt manually is uncommon since it’s specifically for user interrupts.

Related Resources

Tutorial

Python's Built-in Exceptions: A Walkthrough With Examples

In this tutorial, you'll get to know some of the most commonly used built-in exceptions in Python. You'll learn when these exceptions can appear in your code and how to handle them. Finally, you'll learn how to raise some of these exceptions in your code.

intermediate python

For additional information on related topics, take a look at the following resources:

• Python Exceptions: An Introduction (Tutorial)
• Python's Built-in Exceptions: A Walkthrough With Examples (Quiz)
• Raising and Handling Python Exceptions (Course)
• Introduction to Python Exceptions (Course)
• Python Exceptions: An Introduction (Quiz)