How to Fix – TypeError ‘int’ object is not subscriptable

If you are working with Python, you may encounter the error message “TypeError: ‘int’ object is not subscriptable” when trying to access an element of an integer variable using square brackets. This error occurs because integers are not subscriptable, meaning you cannot access individual elements of an integer like you can with a list or a string.

In this tutorial, we will explore the causes of this error and provide several solutions to fix it. We will also discuss some best practices to avoid this error in the future. So, let’s get started!

Understanding the TypeError: 'int' object is not subscriptable error

The error message here is quite helpful. It tells us that we’re trying to use an integer as a subscriptable object (for example, a list, string, tuple, etc.) using the square brackets notation [] to retrieve a specific element or a slice of elements. An integer object represents an integer value and not a sequence and thus, we cannot really use them as subscriptible objects. If you try to do so, you’ll get this error.

Let’s look at an example.

# integer variable
score = 91
# using integer as a subscriptable object
print(score[0])

Output:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)

Cell In[3], line 4
      2 score = 91
      3 # using integer as a subscriptable object
----> 4 print(score[0])

TypeError: 'int' object is not subscriptable

In the above example, we created an integer variable score that stores the integer value 91. We then tried to access the value at index 0 in the variable score and we get the error TypeError: 'int' object is not subscriptable.

You’ll get the same if you try to perform a slice operation on an integer value.

# integer variable
score = 91
# using integer as a subscriptable object
print(score[0:3])

Output:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)

Cell In[4], line 4
      2 score = 91
      3 # using integer as a subscriptable object
----> 4 print(score[0:3])

TypeError: 'int' object is not subscriptable

In the above scenarios, we are using an integer as a subscriptable object which is not allowed (and doesn’t really make sense) since an integer represents a single value and not a sequence of values and thus a TypeError is raised.

Fixing the error

To fix this error, you can either not use integer objects as a subscriptable object or use a subscriptable object like a list or a string instead.

Let’s revisit the examples from above and fix those errors.

# integer variable
score = 91
# print the integer
print(score)

Output:

91

Here, we are not using the integer value as subscriptable object and instead directly printing its value. You can see that we don’t get an error.

# list of scores
scores = [91, 77, 82, 45, 89]
# using list as a subscriptable object
print(scores[0:3])

Output:

[91, 77, 82]

Here, instead of using an integer value, we are using a list that is subscriptable, and thus performing operations like slicing or accessing a value at an index won’t result in this TypeError.

Another use case could be you are trying to get the digits in a number. In that case, convert the integer to a string object (which is subscriptable) and then perform the required operations. Let’s look at an example.

# integer variable
num = 12345
# integer to string
num_str = str(num)

# get the first digit
print(num_str[0])
# get the last digit
print(num_str[-1])
# get the first three digits
print(num_str[:3])

Output:

1
5
123

Note that the solution to correct this error will depend on your use case and what you’re trying to achieve.

Conclusion

The “TypeError: ‘int’ object is not subscriptable” error occurs when we try to access an index of an integer or slice an integer, which is not possible as integers are not subscriptable. To fix this error, you can choose to not perform such operations on integers or use a subscriptable type like a list or a string instead.

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