How to Fix the “IndexError: Single Positional Indexer is Out-of-Bounds” Error in Python?

Fix: IndexError: Single Positional Indexer is Out-of-Bounds

Are you getting the IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bounds in Python while dealing with lists, tuples, or complex data structures like pandas DataFrames?

An index is the location of an entity in a data structure like lists, tuples, or DataFrames. We can access an individual entity of the data structure or be literate over the whole data structure using the index.

 In this article, we’ll discuss what is the “IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bound” error in Python and how to fix it, along with practical examples. Let’s get right into the topic.

 

 

What is the “IndexError: Single Positional Indexer is Out-of-Bound” Error in Python?

The IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bound in Python raises when we try to access an element from a data structure that doesn’t even exist. Say you have only three slices of pizza 🍕 to eat, and you finished them eating, but now you want to have one more which doesn’t exist to eat 😄 you’ll give up on the fourth one.

Similarly, in computer programming, each data structure has some limits or boundaries of data. We cannot access elements out of their scope. Let’s see an example to understand the concept clearly.

But remember that the computer programming index starts with 0, meaning the first entity is placed in a 0th index.

 

Code

# create a list

pizza = ["slice 1", "slice 2", "slice 3"]

print("Here goes the",pizza[0])

print("Here goes the",pizza[1])

print("Here goes the",pizza[2])


# now we don't have more slices, let's try to access the fourth slice

print("Here goes the",pizza[3]) # IndexError

 

Output

IndexError: list index out of range

 

As you can see in the above example, we’ve accessed three elements from the list pizza, but as we tried the access the fourth one, we got the IndexError: list index out of range.

Now let’s try pandas DataFrame and see how it works.

 

Code

# import pandas

import pandas as pd


# create a DataFrame

df = pd.DataFrame({'Name': ["Mark", "Elon", "Bill", "Jeff"],

'Age': [38, 51,67,58],

'Company': ['Meta', 'Tesla', 'Microsoft', 'Amazon']
})


print(df)

print(df.iloc[5]) # error

 

Output

Name Age Company

0 Mark 38 Meta

1 Elon 51 Tesla

2 Bill 67 Microsoft

3 Jeff 58 Amazon

IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bound

 

In the above example, we’ve created a DataFrame of three columns and four rows containing information about the biggest tech giants. Further, as we know that we cannot access something beyond the scope, and as we tried to access the 6th element of the DataFrame, we got the IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bound.

 

 

How to Fix the “IndexError: Single Positional Indexer is Out-of-Bound” Error in Python?

To fix the IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bound in Python, we need to use a valid index. We should know the length of the data structure or use exception handling in our program to catch the exceptions before they crash our programs.

Let us see how to find the length of the DataFrame in Python to know the last index of the DataFrame in Python.

 

Code

# import pandas

import pandas as pd


# create a DataFrame

df = pd.DataFrame({'Name': ["Mark", "Elon", "Bill", "Jeff"],

'Age': [38, 51,67,58],

'Company': ['Meta', 'Tesla', 'Microsoft', 'Amazon']
})


# lets find the length of the DataFrame

print("The length of the df is ",len(df.index))

print("The length of the df is ",df.shape[0])

print("The length of the df is ",df[df.columns[0]].count())

 

Output

The length of the df is 4

The length of the df is 4

The length of the df is 4

 

As you can see in the above example, we have seen the three different methods to find the length of a DataFrame, which can be useful to know the last index of it so we can easily iterate over it using a for loop.

Now let’s see an example of accessing individual entities of a DataFrame using an index.

 

Code

# import pandas

import pandas as pd


# create a DataFrame

df = pd.DataFrame({'Name': ["Mark", "Elon", "Bill", "Jeff"],

'Age': [38, 51,67,58],

'Company': ['Meta', 'Tesla', 'Microsoft', 'Amazon']
})


# access the second entity of the DataFrame

print(df.iloc[1])

 

Output

Name Elon

Age 51

Company Tesla

Name: 1, dtype: object

 

Alright! So far, we are going well; now let’s see how to iterate the DataFrame using a for loop, and to do so, we’ll need the length of the DataFrame. Let’s see how it works.

 

Code

# import pandas

import pandas as pd


# create a DataFrame

df = pd.DataFrame({'Name': ["Mark", "Elon", "Bill", "Jeff"],

'Age': [38, 51,67,58],

'Company': ['Meta', 'Tesla', 'Microsoft', 'Amazon']
})


# iterating over the DataFrame

for i in range(len(df.index)):

print(df.iloc[i])

print("************\n")

 

Output

Name Mark
Age 38
Company Meta
Name: 0, dtype: object

************

Name Elon
Age 51
Company Tesla
Name: 1, dtype: object

************

Name Bill
Age 67
Company Microsoft
Name: 2, dtype: object

************

Name Jeff
Age 58
Company Amazon
Name: 3, dtype: object

************

 

Isn’t this pretty cool? We’ve iterated over the DataFrame using a for loop and the len(df.index) function.

 

 

How to Handle IndexError Using Exceptional Handling in Python?

Exceptional handling is one of the most powerful features of computer programming that helps us catch exceptions and errors before crashing our programming. Let’s see how to prevent our Python program from crashing using try-except exception handling.

 

Code

# import pandas

import pandas as pd


try:


# create a DataFrame

df = pd.DataFrame({'Name': ["Mark", "Elon", "Bill", "Jeff"],

'Age': [38, 51,67,58],

'Company': ['Meta', 'Tesla', 'Microsoft', 'Amazon']
})


print(df.iloc[5]) #error


except IndexError as e:

print(f"You have used an invalid index\nIndex range is {0,len(df.index)} \nIndexError: {e}")


print("\nWow! the program isn't crashed, don't forget to use Exception Handling in your next Python program.")

 

Output

You have used an invalid index

Index range is (0, 4)

IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bounds

Wow! the program isn't crashed, don't forget to use Exception Handling in your next Python program.

 

 

Conclusion

To summarize the article on how to fix the IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bound in Python, we’ve discussed why the IndexError occurs and how to fix it. We’ve discussed different useful scenarios to get rid of the IndexError, like using a valid index or exception handling technique.

Let’s have a quick recap of the topics discussed in this article.

  1. What is the IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bounds in Python?
  2. How to fix the IndexError: single positional indexer is out-of-bounds in Python?
  3. How to find the length of a DataFrame in Python?
  4. How to access individual entities of DataFrame using an index?
  5. How to iterate over a DataFrame using a for loop?
  6. How to use exception handling to catch errors in Python?

To explore more, comment below on how to print the last entity of a DataFrame using an index.

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