Python Index Error is a type of error that occurs when your program’s query doesn’t resonate with the machine’s interpreted system of understanding. There is a basic line of conflict between the mathematical thinking of a human and a machine. We start our counting with natural numbers, starting at 1, A machine starts at 0. Hence this error is most likely with programmers at the beginning stage.
Indexing and Indices:
An Index in python represents an element’s position, while Indices are the positions where each of the values exists. For example- In a class of 40 students, each student sits in rows or columns as arranged(Stacked Arrays). Each student has a specific name that tells his identity and a place for his position. Similarly, in Python, each number or string has its specific location and value; such locations are called indices, the whole set of its arrangement is indexing.
Python Index Error:
In terms of the previous example, 40 students are there in the class, and our counting starts with “1” when the teacher calls the “41st” student, nobody will respond as it is possible to call the non-existent. Similarly, a machine follows the same approach more or less in a more technical and direct language.
For example:
indexValueList = [0,1,2,3,4,5]
Each value in the list also represents its index which means the value 0 represents its value and the location where it is actually stored.
If I call “6,” it will reflect an error that index error list not found despite calling the fifth place. The reason is simple that the interpreter isn’t able to locate the value stores at 6 position
Well, there are mainly two ways to go about approaching the values in Python:
- Left to Right (Normal)
- Right to Left (Negative)
Left to Right
The primary way is to access the values with the name of an array and the indices name/ position name from the front. For eg:
Here “index value list” is the name of the array, and [3] is the index or the location where the value is stored.
Right to Left
Right to Left is an approach to accessing the variable from the back. This is mostly used in longcase arrays where the number is in hundreds or thousands, and the user wants to access the second last or the last value. It is written with a “-” sign at the beginning.
For instance:
The difference between:
In the Right to left approach, we can access values from the back and it doesn’t use “0” as the initial counting point and therefore it displays 2nd position from the back not third. The main reason is “-0” doesn’t exist. Concluding, 0 is a neutral number and is conscient of any sign.
To encounter the index error problem in Python, the len() function is used. It gives the value of n. “n” is the maximum indices value that we can use to access the value from the stack of an array. The range of any valid indices is [0,1,2,n-1] from the front and [-n] from the back.
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