IndexError but I don't know what is wrong

Question

opponent = [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]

I want just the first element in my list 'opponent', therefore I then code:

opponent = int(opponent[0])

I use this to then count the number of 'opponent's there are in one of my other lists.

if wongames.count(opponent) == 2:
...blablabla

It says my submission raised an exception of type IndexError at the line. 'opponent = int(opponent[0])'.

Why is this? How do I fix this? :(

Answer 1

Your list of opponents is called opponent , and later on in your code you do:

opponent = int(opponent[0])

overriding the earlier opponent list, so now the opponent name refers to an integer instead.

Next time you do the same again:

opponent = int(opponent[0])

You're trying to access [0] index of an integer, which obviously doesn't work because integers cannot be indexed.

Solution: Simply use a different name for the two variables. I'd call the list opponents instead:

opponents = [1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
opponent = opponents[0]

Notice that since they're already integers in the list, you don't need int() . You only need to use int() if you want to convert it from one type to another, for example if it was a string '0' instead of an integer 0

Answer 2

I am not sure what's happening there, but I suspect the indexError is because you are assigning the same opponent variable to pick the element from the list opponent .

If you run this code snippet for the second iteration, variable opponent is not a list anymore, maybe that is the reason for the error. Try changing assigning the value to a new variable.

opponent = [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]

## Code block
opponent = int(opponent[0]) # Now opponent is not a list, just a number
if wongames.count(opponent) == 2:
    # do something

If the code block is executing for the second time, the error occurs. Try changing the code to something as follows,

opponent = [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
first_opponent = int(opponent[0]) 
if wongames.count(first_opponent) == 2:
    # do something

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Hope this helps! :)