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Python Python Collections (Retired) Dictionaries String Formatting with Dictionaries

Posted by Hunter Kiely
Hunter Kiely
2,768 Points

Can someone help me understand this error "TypeError: 'int' object is not subscriptable"

Part of my problem is that I don't think I fully understand / visualize what the output would look like in the end if it was printed. What am I doing wrong?

thanks

strings.py 
dicts = [
    {'name': 'Michelangelo',
     'food': 'PIZZA'},
    {'name': 'Garfield',
     'food': 'lasanga'},
    {'name': 'Walter',
     'food': 'pancakes'},
    {'name': 'Galactus',
     'food': 'worlds'}
]

string = "Hi, I'm {name} and I love to eat {food}!"

def string_factory(dicts, string):
  for item in range(0, len(dicts)):
    values = item[dicts]
    single_dict = string.format(**values)
    print(single_dict)

string_factory(dicts, string)

1 Answer

Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
40,533 Points
Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
40,533 Points

With your loop defined as:

for item in range(0, len(dicts)):

item will be assigned an integer each iteration, so if you were able to look at it in the first iteration it would look like this:

# TypeError
values = 0[dicts]

Here's an outline for building the string_factory function:

def string_factory(dicts, string):
  # Create a list to hold all the formatted strings

  # For each dictionary in the list
    # Call format on the string, unpacking the current dictionary for the arguments
    # Append the formatted string to the formatted strings list

  # Return the formatted strings list

Edit: Here's an example of the output if it helps:

Hi, I'm Michelangelo and I love to eat PIZZA!
Hi, I'm Garfield and I love to eat lasanga!
Hi, I'm Walter and I love to eat pancakes!
Hi, I'm Galactus and I love to eat worlds!

This was the code that produced it:

for message in string_factory(dicts, string):
    print(message)