AttributeError: 'set' object has no attribute 'items'

# AttributeError: 'set' object has no attribute 'items'

The Python "AttributeError: 'set' object has no attribute 'items'" occurs when we create a set object instead of a dictionary.

To solve the error, separate the keys and values in the dictionary by colons and not commas, e.g. {"name": "Bobby Hadz"}.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

Copied!
employee = {'name', 'Bobby Hadz', 'age', 30}

print(type(employee))  # 👉️ <class 'set'>

# ⛔️ AttributeError: 'set' object has no attribute 'items'
print(employee.items())

Notice that we separated the keys and values in the employee variable by commas instead of colons and ended up creating a Set object.

# Separate the keys and values of the object with colons

To solve the error, separate the keys and values of the object with colons.

Copied!
employee = {'name': 'Bobby Hadz', 'age': 30}

# 👇️ <class 'dict'>
print(type(employee))


# 👇️ dict_items([('name', 'Bobby Hadz'), ('age', 30)])
print(employee.items())

for k, v in employee.items():
    print(k, v)

We used colons to separate the keys and values and created a dictionary.

# Wrapping your keys and values in a string

The error might also occur if you wrap your key-value pairs in a string.

Copied!
employee = {'name: Bobby Hadz, age: 30'} # 👈️ single string

print(type(employee))  # 👉️ <class 'set'>

# ⛔️ AttributeError: 'set' object has no attribute 'items'
print(employee.items())

Notice that we have a single string between the curly braces in the employee variable, so we ended up creating a set object.

Since set objects don't have the items() method, the error occurs.

# Declare individual comma-separated, key-value pairs

To solve the error in this scenario, we have to split the key-value pairs.

Copied!
employee = {'name': 'Bobby Hadz', 'age': 30}

# 👇️ <class 'dict'>
print(type(employee))


# 👇️ dict_items([('name', 'Bobby Hadz'), ('age', 30)])
print(employee.items())

for k, v in employee.items():
    print(k, v)

A good way to start debugging is to print(dir(your_object)) and see what attributes the object has.

# Make sure your HTTP request headers are a dictionary

The error commonly occurs when you try to declare a headers dictionary when using the requests module.

Copied!
# ✅ Correctly declaring headers dictionary
headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'token MY_TOKEN',
}

print(type(headers)) # 👉️ <class 'dict'>

Notice that each key and each value is wrapped in a string. This is the correct way to declare a dictionary.

The error occurs when you wrap an entire key-value pair in a string.

Copied!
# ⛔️ Declares a Set object by mistake
headers = {
    'Content-Type: application/json',
    'Authorization: token MY_TOKEN',
}

print(type(headers))  # 👉️ <class 'set'>

The code sample wraps an entire key-value pair in a string, so it declares a Set object.

To declare a dictionary:

1. Each key has to be wrapped in a string.
2. Each key-value pair has to be separated by a colon.
3. There has to be a comma between the key-value pairs.

# Printing the attributes of a Set object

Here is an example of what printing the attributes of a set looks like.

Copied!
# 👇️ Set object
employee = {'name', 'Bobby Hadz', 'age', 30}

# 👇️ [...'add', 'clear', 'copy', 'difference', 'difference_update', 'discard'...]
print(dir(employee))

If you pass a class to the dir() function, it returns a list of names of the class's attributes, and recursively of the attributes of its bases.

# Printing the attributes of a dict object

If you do the same for a dict object, you will see the items() method in the list of attributes.

Copied!
# 👇️ `dict` object
employee = {'name': 'Bobby Hadz', 'age': 30}

# 👇️ [... 'items', ...]
print(dir(employee))

As shown in the code sample, the dict object has an items attribute.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

• Creating a Tuple or a Set from user Input in Python
• TypeError: 'set' object is not subscriptable in Python