What to do with “Unexpected indent” in python?

Question

How do I rectify the error \"unexpected indent\" in python?

Answer 1

Run your code with the -tt option to find out if you are using tabs and spaces inconsistently

Answer 2

Indentation in Python is important and this is just not for code readability, unlike many other programming languages. If there is any white space or tab in your code between consecutive commands, python will give this error as Python is sensitive to this. We are likely to get this error when we do copy and paste of code to any Python. Make sure to identify and remove these spaces using a text editor like Notepad++ or manually remove the whitespace from the line of code where you are getting an error.

Step1 :Gives error 
L = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9, 10]]
print(L[2: ])

Step2: L = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9, 10]]print(L[2: ])

Step3: No error after space was removed
L = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9, 10]]
print(L[2: ])
OUTPUT: [[7, 8, 9, 10]]

Thanks!

Answer 3

By using correct indentation. Python is whitespace aware, so you need to follow its indentation guidlines for blocks or you'll get indentation errors.

Answer 4

Python uses spacing at the start of the line to determine when code blocks start and end. Errors you can get are:

Unexpected indent. This line of code has more spaces at the start than the one before, but the one before is not the start of a subblock (e.g. if/while/for statement). All lines of code in a block must start with exactly the same string of whitespace. For instance:

>>> def a():
...   print "foo"
...     print "bar"
IndentationError: unexpected indent

This one is especially common when running python interactively: make sure you don't put any extra spaces before your commands. (Very annoying when copy-and-pasting example code!)

>>>   print "hello"
IndentationError: unexpected indent

Unindent does not match any outer indentation level. This line of code has fewer spaces at the start than the one before, but equally it does not match any other block it could be part of. Python cannot decide where it goes. For instance, in the following, is the final print supposed to be part of the if clause, or not?

>>> if user == "Joey":
...     print "Super secret powers enabled!"
...   print "Revealing super secrets"
IndendationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level

Expected an indented block. This line of code has the same number of spaces at the start as the one before, but the last line was expected to start a block (e.g. if/while/for statement, function definition).

>>> def foo():
... print "Bar"
IndentationError: expected an indented block

If you want a function that doesn't do anything, use the "no-op" command pass:

>>> def foo():
...     pass

Mixing tabs and spaces is allowed (at least on my version of Python), but Python assumes tabs are 8 characters long, which may not match your editor. Just say "no" to tabs. Most editors allow them to be automatically replaced by spaces.

The best way to avoid these issues is to always use a consistent number of spaces when you indent a subblock, and ideally use a good IDE that solves the problem for you. This will also make your code more readable.

Answer 5

Notepad++ was giving the tab space correct but the indentation problem was finally found in Sublime text editor.

Use Sublime text editor and go line by line

Answer 6

It depends in the context. Another scenario which wasn't yet covered is the following. Let's say you have one file with a class with a specific method in it

class Scraper:
    def __init__(self):
        pass

    def scrape_html(self, html: str):
        pass

and in the bottom of the file you have something like

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # some
    # commands
    # doing
    # stuff

making it the whole file look like this

class Scraper:
    def __init__(self):
        pass

    def scrape_html(self, html: str):
        pass

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # some
    # commands
    # doing
    # stuff

If in scrape_html() you open up, for example, an if/else statement

class Scraper:
    def __init__(self):
        pass

    def scrape_html(self, html: str):
        if condition:
            pass
        else:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()

You'll need to add pass or whatever you want to to that else statement or else you'll get

Expected indented block

Unindent not expected

Expected expression

and in the first row

Unexpected indentation

Adding that pass would fix all of these four problems.