TypeError: 'bool' object is not subscriptable in Python

# TypeError: 'bool' object is not subscriptable in Python

The Python "TypeError: 'bool' object is not subscriptable" occurs when we use square brackets to try to access a bool object at a specific index or specific key.

To solve the error, track down where the value got assigned a boolean and correct the assignment.

Here are 2 examples of how the error occurs.

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my_bool = True

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'bool' object is not subscriptable
print(my_bool[0])

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'bool' object is not subscriptable
print(my_bool['name'])

Boolean objects are not subscriptable. In other words, we can't use square brackets to access a boolean at a specific index or to try to access a boolean's key.

# Track down where the variable got assigned a boolean value

You have to track down where the variable got assigned a boolean, and correct the assignment to a value that is subscriptable, e.g. a string, list or a dictionary.

Make sure you haven't reassigned a subscriptable value to a boolean somewhere in your code.

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my_list = ['a', 'b', 'c']

# 👇️ Reassigned to a boolean by mistake
my_list = False

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'bool' object is not subscriptable
print(my_list[0])

We initially set the my_list variable to a list, but then we reassigned it to a boolean which caused the error.

You can try to remove the square brackets accessor if the value is intended to be a boolean.

If you meant to declare a dictionary and access a key, use curly braces to wrap the key-value pairs.

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my_dict = {'id': 1, 'name': 'Bobby Hadz'}

print(my_dict['id'])  # 👉️ 1
print(my_dict['name'])  # 👉️ Bobby Hadz

If the variable is meant to store a string, wrap it in quotes.

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my_str = 'bobbyhadz.com'

print(my_str[0])  # 👉️ b
print(my_str[1])  # 👉️ o

print(my_str[0:5])  # 👉️ bobby

The error means that we are using square brackets to access a key in a specific object or to access a specific index, however, the object doesn't support this functionality.

Python indexes are zero-based, so the first character in a string has an index of 0, and the last character has an index of -1 or len(a_string) - 1.

# Only use square brackets to access subscriptable objects

You should only use square brackets to access subscriptable objects.

The subscriptable objects in Python are:

• list
• tuple
• dictionary
• string

All other objects have to be converted to a subscriptable object by using the list(), tuple(), dict() or str() classes to be able to use bracket notation.

Subscriptable objects implement the __getitem__ method whereas non-subscriptable objects do not.

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a_list = [2, 4, 6, 8]

# 👇️ <built-in method __getitem__ of list object at 0x7f71f3252640>
print(a_list.__getitem__)

# Additional Resources

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

• AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'X' in Python
• TypeError: 'bool' object is not callable in Python [Fixed]
• TypeError: 'bool' object is not iterable in Python [Solved]