AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'X' in Python

AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'X' in Python #

The Python "AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute" occurs when we try to access an attribute on a boolean value (True or False). To solve the error, track down where you are setting the value to a boolean or use the hasattr() method to check for the attribute's existence.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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example = True

# ⛔️ AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'my_attribute'
print(example.my_attribute)

We are trying to access an attribute on a boolean (True or False) instead of on an object.

If you print() the value you are accessing the attribute on, it will be a boolean.

For example, you might be returning a boolean value from a function somewhere in your code and assigning that to the variable instead of an object.

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def get_obj():
    return False


# 👇️ False
example = get_obj()


# ⛔️ AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'items'
print(example.items())

The get_obj function in the example returns a boolean, so the example variable gets assigned a False value which causes the error.

If you need to check whether an object contains an attribute, use the hasattr function.

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example = True

if hasattr(example, 'my_attribute'):
    print(example.my_attribute)
else:
    print('Attribute is not present on object')  # 👉️ this runs

The hasattr function takes the following 2 parameters:

The hasattr() function returns True if the string is the name of one of the object's attributes, otherwise False is returned.

Using the hasattr function would handle the error if the attribute doesn't exist on the object, however you still have to figure out where the variable gets assigned a boolean value in your code.

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class Employee():
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name


employee = Employee('Alice')


# 👇️ assignment to boolean here (cause of the error)
employee = True

# ⛔️ AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'name'
print(employee.name)

The example shows how the employee variable stored an object at first, but got assigned a boolean value somewhere in our code which caused the error.

If we remove the line that assigns a boolean value to employee in the example, the error wouldn't occur.

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class Employee():
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name


employee = Employee('Alice')

print(employee.name)  # 👉️ Alice

If you print() the value you are accessing the attribute on and get a True or False value back, you are either assigning the incorrect value to a variable or you have a re-assignment somewhere in your code that overrides the object with a boolean value.

Conclusion #

The Python "AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute" occurs when we try to access an attribute on a boolean value (True or False). To solve the error, track down where you are setting the value to a boolean or use the hasattr() method to check for the attribute's existence.