title: Raise an Exception on User Input
body: <p>I'm trying to grasp my head around try/except. Please see code below....</p>
  
  <pre><code>status = raw_input('What is your status?')
  
  
  #if x is anything other othan "citizen", "legal", or "illegal" raise a ValueError
  
  
  try:
      status == "citizen" or status == "legal" or status == "illegal"
  except:
      raise ValueError
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So, I want to raise a ValueError if the user inputs anything other than what is specified, which doesn't happen. I know I can just use an If statement and raise a ValueError that way. But why would this not work also. Should the code not jump the except block if anything within the Try block is False?</p>