How to Handle Missing Variables in Zapier Python for Incrementing Values

Other Questions Zapier
1

I’m retrieving a custom field from Klaviyo, but sometimes it is unavailable, resulting in a missing variable. Here’s my existing code that works when the variable is present:

return {
  'updated_total': int(data['previous_total']) + 1
}

However, it fails when this variable is not set. How can I modify the Zapier Python block to:

  1. Verify if the variable exists and is a number?
  2. Assign it a value of 0 if it’s absent?
  3. Finally, increment this value by 1 for the updated total?

I appreciate your help!

2

In situations like this, the combination of handling TypeErrors with try-except blocks can be beneficial. This allows you to account for cases where ‘previous_total’ might not be an integer. Here’s how you can implement it:

try:
    previous_total = int(data.get('previous_total', 0))
except (TypeError, ValueError):
    previous_total = 0

return {
    'updated_total': previous_total + 1
}

This approach ensures that any unexpected type issues are handled gracefully, defaulting ‘previous_total’ to 0 when needed.

3

hey there, u can use the .get() method with a default value. like this: data.get('previous_total', 0) it returns 0 when ‘previous_total’ isn’t there. then u can safely do the increment.