“Can only iterable” Python error

Question

Hello my fellow programmers.

I am a fairly new programmer, and now I am facing a great predicament. I am getting the error:

can only assign an iterab         


        

Answer 1

int_lis[:] = duplic_int_lis [int_firs] means assign all the items of duplic_int_lis [int_firs] to int_lis, so it expects you to pass an iterable/iterator on the RHS.

But in your case you're passing it an non-iterable, which is incorrect:

>>> lis = range(10)
>>> lis[:] = range(5) 
>>> lis               #all items of `lis` replaced with range(5)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]

>>> lis[:] = 5        #Non-iterable will raise an error.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
    lis[:] = 5
TypeError: can only assign an iterable

>>> lis[:] = 'foobar' #works for any iterable/iterator
>>> lis
['f', 'o', 'o', 'b', 'a', 'r']

As you cannot iterate over an integer, hence the error.

>>> for x in 1: pass
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
    for x in 1:pass
TypeError: 'int' object is not iterable