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.

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 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.

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

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__)

Conclusion #

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.