python - Purpose of else and finally in exception handling

Question

Are the else and finally sections of exception handling redundant? For example, is there any difference between the following two code snippets?

try:
    foo = open("foo.txt")
except IOError:
    print("error")
else:
    print(foo.read())
finally:
    print("finished")

and

try:
    foo = open("foo.txt")
    print(foo.read())
except IOError:
    print("error")
print("finished")

More generally, can't the contents of else always be moved into the try, and can't the contents of finally just be moved outside the try/catch block? If so, what is the purpose of else and finally? Is it just to enhance readability?

Answer 1

finally is executed regardless of whether the statements in the try block fail or succeed. else is executed only if the statements in the try block don't raise an exception.