Sequence item 0: expected str instance, NoneType found

Sequence item 0: expected str instance, NoneType found #

The Python "TypeError: sequence item 0: expected str instance, NoneType found" occurs when we call the join() method with an iterable that contains one or more None values. To solve the error, figure out where the None values come from or filter them out before calling join.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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my_list = [None, None, 'a', 'b']

# ⛔️ TypeError: sequence item 0: expected str instance, NoneType found
result = ''.join(my_list)

The join method raises a TypeError if there are any non-string values in the iterable.

The most common sources of None values are:

1. Having a function that doesn't return anything (returns None implicitly).
2. Explicitly setting a variable to None.
3. Assigning a variable to the result of calling a built-in function that doesn't return anything.
4. Having a function that only returns a value if a certain condition is met.

If you want to filter out the None values from the iterable, use the filter() function.

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my_list = [None, None, 'a', 'b']

result = ''.join(filter(lambda x: x if x is not None else '', my_list))

print(result)  # 👉️ 'ab'

If your iterable contains other values that are not of type string, make sure to pass them to the str() class to convert them to strings before passing them to join().

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my_list = [None, None, 'a', 'b']

result = ''.join(filter(lambda x: str(x) if x is not None else '', my_list))

print(result)  # 👉️ 'ab'

The filter function takes a function and an iterable as arguments and constructs an iterator from the elements of the iterable for which the function returns a truthy value.

If you pass None for the function argument, all falsy elements of the iterable are removed.

The str.join method takes an iterable as an argument and returns a string which is the concatenation of the strings in the iterable.

If your list contains numbers, or other types, convert all of the values to string before calling join().

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my_list = ['a', 'b', 1, 2]


all_strings = list(map(str, my_list))

print(all_strings) # 👉️ ['a', 'b', '1', '2']

result = ''.join(all_strings)

print(result)  # 👉️ "ab12"

The string the method is called on is used as the separator between elements.

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

my_str = '-'.join(my_list)

print(my_str)  # 👉️ "a-b-c"

If you don't need a separator and just want to join the iterable's elements into a string, call the join() method on an empty string.

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

my_str = ''.join(my_list)

print(my_str)  # 👉️ "abc"

Conclusion #

The Python "TypeError: sequence item 0: expected str instance, NoneType found" occurs when we call the join() method with an iterable that contains one or more None values. To solve the error, figure out where the None values come from or filter them out before calling join.