TopolearnCorrectly checking status and decoding bodies is the core of every client call.
An httpx.Response exposes the body as:
r.content: raw bytes,r.text: decoded string, using the charset fromContent-Typeand otherwise UTF-8 (configurable withdefault_encodingon the client),r.json(): parsed JSON, raisingjson.JSONDecodeErroron invalid content.
Status helpers make intent clear: r.is_success (2xx), r.is_redirect, r.is_client_error (4xx), r.is_server_error (5xx), r.is_error. httpx.codes holds named constants, so r.status_code == httpx.codes.NOT_FOUND reads better than a bare 404. r.reason_phrase gives the text, like "Not Found".
r.raise_for_status() raises httpx.HTTPStatusError for 4xx and 5xx responses and returns the response otherwise, so you can chain it:
data = client.get(url).raise_for_status().json()The exception has .request and .response attributes for logging and branching.
Other useful attributes: r.headers (case-insensitive, multi-value aware), r.url (an httpx.URL object with .host, .path, .params), r.request (what was sent), r.elapsed, r.http_version and r.history for redirects that were followed.
Note that raise_for_status only raises for 4xx and 5xx. A 3xx redirect that was not followed comes back as a normal response with r.is_redirect true and the next hop prepared in r.next_request.
Example
import httpx
r = httpx.get("https://httpbin.org/json")
print(r.is_success, r.status_code == httpx.codes.OK) # True True
print(type(r.content).__name__, type(r.text).__name__) # bytes str
print(r.json()["slideshow"]["title"]) # Sample Slide Show
print(r.url.host, r.headers["content-type"]) # httpbin.org application/json
title = httpx.get("https://httpbin.org/json").raise_for_status().json()["slideshow"]["author"]
print(title) # Yours Truly
try:
httpx.get("https://httpbin.org/status/418").raise_for_status()
except httpx.HTTPStatusError as e:
print(e.response.status_code, e.response.is_client_error) # 418 TrueRemember
- content is bytes, text is str, json() parses
- is_success, is_client_error, is_server_error and httpx.codes clarify intent
- raise_for_status() raises HTTPStatusError or returns the response for chaining
Watch out for
- Calling r.json() on an error page without checking the status first.