TypeError: builtin_function_or_method object is not iterable

TypeError: builtin_function_or_method object is not iterable #

The Python "TypeError: builtin_function_or_method object is not iterable" occurs when we try to iterate over a built-in function because we forgot to call it. To solve the error, make sure to call the built-in function, e.g. my_dict.keys().

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'builtin_function_or_method' object is not iterable
for key in my_dict.keys:  # 👈️ forgot to call function
    print(key)

To solve the error, make sure to call the built-in function.

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

for key in my_dict.keys():
    print(key)  # 👉️ name, age

We used parenthesis to invoke the built-in function, so now we iterate over the iterable that the function returns.

Here is another example of how the error occurs when using the str.split() method.

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my_str = 'a,b,c'

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'builtin_function_or_method' object is not iterable
for el in my_str.split:
    print(el)

We forgot to call the method which caused the error.

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my_str = 'a,b,c'

for el in my_str.split(','):
    print(el)  # 👉️ a, b, c

Adding parenthesis to call the method resolves the issue.

Make sure you don't have any clashes with names of variables you define and built-in function or methods.

If you need to check if an object is iterable, use a try/except statement.

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my_str = 'hello'

try:
    my_iterator = iter(my_str)

    for i in my_iterator:
        print(i) # 👉️ h, e, l, l, o
except TypeError as te:
    print(te)

The iter() function raises a TypeError if the passed in value doesn't support the __iter__() method or the sequence protocol (the __getitem__() method).

If we pass a non-iterable object like a function to the iter() function, the except block is ran.

Examples of iterables include all sequence types (list, str, tuple) and some non-sequence types like dict, file objects and other objects that define an __iter__() or a __getitem__() method.