figure - using multiple except clauses makes spe cific error messages possible handling more specific to less specific exceptions one strategy for handling exceptions is to provide specific except clauses for all known exceptions and generic except clauses to handle unknown exceptions you can see the exception hierarchy that python uses at html#exception-hierarchy when viewing this chartbaseexception is the uppermost exception most exceptions are derived from exception when working through math errorsyou can use the generic arithmeticerror or more specific zerodivisionerror exception python evaluates except clauses in the order in which they appear in the source code file the first clause is examined firstthe second clause is examined secondand so on the following steps help you examine an example that demonstrates the importance of using the correct exception order in this caseyou perform tasks that result in math errors this example also appears with the downloadable source code as multipleexception py