Fix Python Typeerror: can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type float

Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog where I share tips and tricks on Python programming. Today, I want to talk about a common error that you might encounter when working with sequences, such as lists, tuples, or strings. The error is: typeerror: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type float.

What does this error mean and how can we fix it?

Let’s find out!

First of all, what is a sequence in Python?

A sequence is an ordered collection of items that can be accessed by index, such as [1, 2, 3] or "hello". Sequences support some common operations, such as slicing, concatenation, and repetition. For example, we can slice a list to get a sublist, concatenate two strings to get a longer string or repeat a tuple to get a bigger tuple.

One of the operations that we can do with sequences is multiplication. Multiplication of a sequence by an integer n means creating a new sequence that repeats the original sequence n times. For example, [1, 2] * 3 returns [1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2], and "hi" * 2 returns "hihi". This is useful when we want to create a sequence with a certain length or pattern.

However, what happens if we try to multiply a sequence by a non-integer, such as a float? For example, what if we write [1, 2] * 2.5 or "hi" * 1.5? This is where the error occurs. Python does not know how to multiply a sequence by a fraction or a decimal number. It only accepts integers as the multiplier. Therefore, it raises a typeerror: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type float.

How can we avoid this error?

There are two possible solutions:

• Convert the float to an integer before multiplying. For example, [1, 2] * int(2.5) or "hi" * int(1.5). This will truncate the decimal part and use the whole number as the multiplier. However, this might not be what we want if we need the exact number of repetitions.
• Use a loop or a list comprehension to create the new sequence manually. For example, [x for x in [1, 2] for _ in range(2)] or "".join(["hi" for _ in range(2)]). This will allow us to specify the exact number of repetitions for each item in the original sequence.

I hope this blog post helped you understand the typeerror: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type float and how to fix it. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Thanks for reading and happy coding!