[Tutor] list index out of range

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:52:20 am Todd Ballard wrote:
> I am attempting to have a cummalative total of the y values and
> receive a "list index out of range" error message

How unfortunate.

Do you have an actual question to ask, or are you just sharing?

If you are having problems fixing the error, what does the stack 
traceback say? Not just the error message, which is the least important 
part of the error, but the entire traceback. This will show *where* the 
function occurs, as well as *what* the error is, and sometimes *why* as 
well.


A couple of other comments follow:

> import filereader
> from filereader import *

It's rare to actually need to do both of this together. Are you sure you 
need both? It's generally better to stick to the first form, and have 
fully-qualified names like filereader.read_array. If that's too long, 
it's best to import only the functions you actually need, which in your 
case seems to be:

from filereader import read_array

The "import *" form should be considered advanced usage best avoided 
unless you know what you're doing.

> My_Path="C:\\Python26\\assignment2\\datadownload.txt"

A little-known fact: Windows supports both \ and / as the directory 
separator. Since Python uses backslash for the escape character, it 
gets tedious and error-prone to write strings with lots of backslashes. 
So the best way to write pathnames under Windows in Python is with 
forward-slashes:

My_Path="C:/Python26/assignment2/datadownload.txt"


> y=[]
> for i in xrange(0,365):

There's no need to say xrange(0, 365). Just xrange(365) will have the 
same effect, because the starting index defaults to 0.

>     y+=[daily_solar_radiation["MJ"][i]]

It's generally more efficient to use:

    y.append(daily_solar_radiation["MJ"][i])

instead of y += [...] as you do, although for only 365 items it won't 
make a huge difference.


> from filereader import *

You've already done this above, you don't need to do this again.





-- 
Steven D'Aprano