Can some please help me identify where the error is?

Question

I am busy with basic python exercises here. I keep getting a TypeError: 'type' object is not subscriptable message.

s = ("Enter a string: ")
print("Original String is", s)

for i in range(0, len(s)-1, 2):
print("Printing only even index chars")
print("index[",i,"]", str[i] )

👆 That is my own program.
_________________________________________________
👇 This is the solution from some website I got the exercise from.

def printEveIndexChar(str):
for i in range(0, len(str)-1, 2):
print("index[",i,"]", str[i] )

inputStr = input("Enter String ")
print("Orginal String is ", inputStr)

print("Printing only even index chars")
printEveIndexChar(inputStr)

Answer 1

So let's start by analyzing the error here: 'type' object is not subscriptable.

This may sound a little vague so we'll dissect it:
'type' object: any built-in type really, so: int, float, str, list, tuple, ...

subscriptable: a subscriptable is something you access an item of; a container, like so: list_a[1], some_tuple[1:3]
The a[i] notation is called subscripting

So, what must've happened is that you tried to access an item of a type, which doesn't make sense. And you did: str[i] on line 6. Also, your string is originally named s, so you might want to write s[i] on line 6, instead.

A rule of thumb is to never name your variables the same as built-ins like: str, float, int, input, max, min, sum, iter, next, etc. Because then you'll lose the reference to that built-in and you can't use it in later code. Huge problem if other people import your code into their own.

You can see a list of such names by doing:
import builtins
print(dir(builtins))

Have fun pythoning!

Answer 2

P.S. have a look at f-strings:

when you prepend a literal string (not a variable name) with an unquoted f, you get an f-string. They help you "format" your code properly.

Say you wanna print a variable's content inside a string. One way is to print('Hello, I\'m ' + name + '. Nice to meet you.'), or print('Hello, I\'m', name, '. Nice to meet you.').

But you can also put your variable inside { } in an f-string like this: print(f'Hello, my name is {name}. Nice to meet you.'). That saves you and your readers some undeserved headache.

Python supports expressions inside { } so you can do: print(f'my favourite list is {[i**2 for i in range(10)]}'). No necessity to print it by the way. You can hold it in a variable:

h = 195 # int
w = '83' # str
Me = f'height: {h}cm, weight: {w}kg'
# Me: 'height: 195cm, weight: 83kg'

Answer 3

f-strings (cont'd)

Now, format specifiers! I didn't really find a good resource for this online so here's how far trial and error gets you:

>>> pi = 3.141
>>> f'{pi: ^8}' # center leaning-left of total length 8
' 3.141 '

>>> f'{pi: <8}' # align left
'3.141 '

>>> f'{pi: >8}' # align right
' 3.141'

>>> f'{pi:x^15}' # specify fill character
'xxxxx3.141xxxxx'

>>> f'{pi:.2f}' # truncate float
'3.14'

>>> f'{pi:?>20.1f}' # all together
'?????????????????3.1'

Answer 4

Zuke Thanks. 🙏 That was helpful. I got the code to run. Stay blessed