Solve - TypeError: 'float' object is not iterable in Python

Solve - TypeError: 'float' object is not iterable in Python #

The Python "TypeError: 'float' object is not iterable" occurs when we try to iterate over a float or pass a float to a built-in function like, list() or tuple(). To solve the error, use the range() built-in function to iterate over a range, e.g. for i in range(int(3.0)):.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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my_float = 3.1

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'float' object is not iterable
for i in my_float:
    print(i)

We are trying to iterate over a floating-point number, but floats are not iterable.

We can use the range() built-in function to iterate over a range.

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my_float = 3.1

for i in range(int(my_float)):
    print(i)  # 👉️ 0 1 2

The range function is commonly used for looping a specific number of times in for loops and takes the following parameters:

If values for the start and stop parameters are provided, the start value is inclusive, whereas the stop value is exclusive.

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my_float = 3.1

for i in range(1, int(my_float)):
    print(i)  # 👉️ 1 2

The following 4 calls to the built-in constructors cause the error.

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my_float = 3.1

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'float' object is not iterable
list(my_float)

dict(my_float)

tuple(my_float)

set(my_float)

To solve the error, we have to correct the assignment and figure out where the float value is coming from.

Here are working examples of using the 4 built-ins.

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l = list(['a', 'b', 'c'])
print(l)  # 👉️ ['a', 'b', 'c']

d = dict(name='Alice', age=30)
print(d)  # 👉️ {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 30}

t = tuple([1, 2, 3])
print(t)  # 👉️ (1, 2, 3)

s = set(['a', 'b', 'a'])
print(s)  # 👉️ {'a', 'b'}

You have to figure out where the float value came from and correct the assignment.

If you need to iterate with both the index and the current character or element, use the enumerate() function.

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my_str = 'hello'

for idx, c in enumerate(my_str):
    print(idx, c)  # 👉️ 0 h, 1 e, 2 l...

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

for idx, el in enumerate(my_list):
    print(idx, el)  # 👉️ 0 a, 1 b, 2 c

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 float to the iter() function, the except block is ran.

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my_float = 3.5

try:
    my_iterator = iter(my_float)

    for i in my_iterator:
        print(i)
except TypeError as te:
    print(te)  # 👉️ 'float' object is not iterable

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.