How to handle AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'text'?

Question

Python

When parsing, the error "AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'text'" is periodically thrown , because the parser cannot find the desired element by the selector and learn text from it.
I get the data like this:
fax = soup.find(id="ctl0_left_fax")
Then I add it to the array (the script stumbles on this): 'fax': fax.text.strip(),
I tried to check:

#  Проверяю, если у страницы TITLE пустой, значит там нечего парсить. ХОЧУ ПРОПУСТИТЬ ДАЛЬНЕЙШИЙ  ПАРСИНГ
if (len(soup.title.text.strip()) == 15) or (soup.title.text.strip() == 'testtesttest -'):
    exit
#  Если у страницы TITLE <16 (значит там есть какой-то контент), то посмотреть текст у селекторов
else:
    list = {
               'cap': cap.text.strip(),
               'fax': fax.text.strip(),
               'email': email.text.strip(),
        }

But for some reason it is ignored (although I checked it - it works).
I will add that I implemented a similar algorithm in PHP and everything worked for me.
Moreover, at the stage of adding to the array, I DIRECTLY IN IT checked through the returned data type through the ternary operator, but this does not work in python.

Answer 1

BeautifulSoup is designed in such a collective way that it returns None if it doesn't find an element, rather than raising an exception or a dummy element, so every element you look for needs to be checked. Those.:

fax = soup.find(id="ctl0_left_fax")
if fax:
    another_element = fax.find(class_='some_class')
    if another_element:
        another_one = another_element.find(class_='some_another_class')
        if another_one:
            do_something()

Or a coolhacker solution to avoid branching:

fax = soup.find(id="ctl0_left_fax")
another_element = fax and fax.find(class_='some_class')
another_one = another_element and another_element.find(class_='some_another_class')
if another_one:
    do_something()

There is only one advice here: do not use BeautifulSoup.

Answer 2

Handle exceptions

try:  

except: