TypeError: 'module' object is not subscriptable in Python

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

The Python "TypeError: 'module' object is not subscriptable" occurs when we import a module as import some_module but use square brackets to access a specific key. To solve the error, use dot notation to access the specific variable or import it directly.

Here is an example of how the error occurs. Imagine we have 2 files - another.py and main.py.

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my_dict = {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 30}

And here is the content for main.py.

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import another

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'module' object is not subscriptable
print(another['name'])

The issue is that, in the main.py file, we import the another module but use square brackets to try to access a key in the my_dict variable.

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import another

print(another.my_dict['name'])  # 👉️ "Alice"

We used dot notation to get access to the dict object from another.py before trying to access a specific key.

Alternatively, you can import the my_dict variable from the another.py module.

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from another import my_dict

print(my_dict['name'])  # 👉️ "Alice"

This import statement only imports the my_dict variable from the another.py module.

A good way to start debugging is to print(dir(your_module)) and see what attributes the imported module has.

Here is what printing the attributes of the another.py module looks like.

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import another

# 👉️ ['__builtins__', '__cached__', '__doc__',
#  '__file__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__',
#  '__spec__', 'my_dict']  👈️ notice 'my_dict'
print(dir(another))

If you pass a module object to the dir() function, it returns a list of names of the module's attributes.

Notice the my_dict attribute at the end of the list.

This means that we have to access the attribute as another.my_dict to get a reference to the dictionary.

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import another

print(another.my_dict)  # 👉️ {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 30}

Alternatively, you can import the my_dict variable directly.

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from another import my_dict

print(my_dict)  # 👉️ {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 30}

Module objects are not subscriptable, so we have to access an attribute of the module to get a hold of a dict or a list object (which are subscriptable).

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 = [1, 3, 5, 7]

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

Conclusion #

The Python "TypeError: 'module' object is not subscriptable" occurs when we import a module as import some_module but use square brackets to access a specific key. To solve the error, use dot notation to access the specific variable or import it directly.