How to Solve IndexError: List index out of Range in Python
Table of Contents
In Python, you will get an error when you try to access an index in a list that is out of range.
This is because a list is a collection of items, and the index is the position of the item in the list, so if you try to access an index that is out of the range of the list, you will get an error.
In this post, we'll learn how we can avoid getting the IndexError: list index out of range
error.
How to avoid the IndexError error
Before we learn how to avoid it, let's take a look at an example code that will result in the error:
PYTHONlist = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(list[5])
This results in the following output:
PYTHONTraceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 3, in <module>
print(list[5])
IndexError: list index out of range
Ultimately, you just need to ensure that the number you're using to access the list does not exceed the length of the list, minus one.
Let's look at code that calculates the highest possible index that is safe to use:
PYTHONlist = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
max = len(list) - 1
print(max)
BASH4
Now, let's try to access the item at the highest index:
PYTHONprint(list[max])
BASH5
It worked, we did not get an error. In general, you are free to access any index 0
or above, and below the highest index, which in this case we set to the variable named max
.
Conclusion
In this post, we learned how to avoid the IndexError: list index out of range
error.
The solution is to ensure the index is not out of the range of the list, which is from 0
to max
, where max
is the length of the list minus one.
Hopefully, you've found this post helpful! Happy coding!
- How to Install Node on Windows, macOS and Linux
- How to Serve Static Files with Nginx and Docker
- How to deploy a .NET app using Docker
- Best Visual Studio Code Extensions for 2022
- Getting Started with Deno
- How to deploy an Express app using Docker
- Learn how to use v-model with a custom Vue component
- How to Scrape the Web using Node.js and Puppeteer
- Getting Started with Handlebars.js
- Build a Real-Time Chat App with Node, Express, and Socket.io
- Using Push.js to Display Web Browser Notifications
- Setting Up a Local Web Server using Node.js