[python] How can I prevent the TypeError: list indices must be integers, not tuple when copying a python list to a numpy array?

I am trying to create 3 numpy arrays/lists using data from another array called mean_data as follows:

---> 39 R = np.array(mean_data[:,0])
     40 P = np.array(mean_data[:,1])
     41 Z = np.array(mean_data[:,2])

When I try run the program I get the error:

TypeError: list indices must be integers, not tuple

The mean_data list looks like this sample...

[6.0, 315.0, 4.8123788544375692e-06],
[6.5, 0.0, 2.259217450023793e-06],
[6.5, 45.0, 9.2823565008402673e-06],
[6.5, 90.0, 8.309270169336028e-06],
[6.5, 135.0, 6.4709418114245381e-05],
[6.5, 180.0, 1.7227922423558414e-05],
[6.5, 225.0, 1.2308522579848724e-05],
[6.5, 270.0, 2.6905672894824344e-05],
[6.5, 315.0, 2.2727114437176048e-05]]

I don't know how to prevent this error, I have tried creating mean_data as a np.array and using np.append to add values to it but that doesn't solve the problem either.

Here's the traceback (was using ipython before)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "polarplot.py", line 36, in <module>
    R = np.array(mean_data[:,0])
TypeError: list indices must be integers, not tuple

And the other way I tried to create an array was:

mean_data = np.array([])

for ur, ua in it.product(uradius, uangle):
    samepoints = (data[:,0]==ur) & (data[:,1]==ua)
    if samepoints.sum() > 1:  # check if there is more than one match
        np.append(mean_data[ur, ua, np.mean(data[samepoints,-1])])
    elif samepoints.sum() == 1:
        np.append(mean_data, [ur, ua, data[samepoints,-1]])

The traceback on that is:

IndexError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-3-5268bc25e75e> in <module>()
     31     samepoints = (data[:,0]==ur) & (data[:,1]==ua)
     32     if samepoints.sum() > 1:  # check if there is more than one match
---> 33         np.append(mean_data[ur, ua, np.mean(data[samepoints,-1])])
     34     elif samepoints.sum() == 1:
     35         np.append(mean_data, [ur, ua, data[samepoints,-1]])

IndexError: invalid index

This question is related to python numpy

The answer is


import numpy as np

mean_data = np.array([
[6.0, 315.0, 4.8123788544375692e-06],
[6.5, 0.0, 2.259217450023793e-06],
[6.5, 45.0, 9.2823565008402673e-06],
[6.5, 90.0, 8.309270169336028e-06],
[6.5, 135.0, 6.4709418114245381e-05],
[6.5, 180.0, 1.7227922423558414e-05],
[6.5, 225.0, 1.2308522579848724e-05],
[6.5, 270.0, 2.6905672894824344e-05],
[6.5, 315.0, 2.2727114437176048e-05]])

R = mean_data[:,0]
print R
print R.shape

EDIT

The reason why you had an invalid index error is the lack of a comma between mean_data and the values you wanted to add.

Also, np.append returns a copy of the array, and does not change the original array. From the documentation :

Returns : append : ndarray

A copy of arr with values appended to axis. Note that append does not occur in-place: a new array is allocated and filled. If axis is None, out is a flattened array.

So you have to assign the np.append result to an array (could be mean_data itself, I think), and, since you don't want a flattened array, you must also specify the axis on which you want to append.

With that in mind, I think you could try something like

mean_data = np.append(mean_data, [[ur, ua, np.mean(data[samepoints,-1])]], axis=0)

Do have a look at the doubled [[ and ]] : I think they are necessary since both arrays must have the same shape.


Just if someone is having this issue and hadn't done list[index, sub-index], you could be having the problem because you're missing a comma between two arrays in an array of arrays (It happened to me).


Seriously this took my much valuable time but not found solution. Basically if you are taking data from sql then you are converting then you can follow these steps.

rows = cursor.fetchall()---- only tried on single column
dataset=[]
for x in rows:
    dataset.append(float(x[0]))

You probably do not need to be making lists and appending them to make your array. You can likely just do it all at once, which is faster since you can use numpy to do your loops instead of doing them yourself in pure python.

To answer your question, as others have said, you cannot access a nested list with two indices like you did. You can if you convert mean_data to an array before not after you try to slice it:

R = np.array(mean_data)[:,0]

instead of

R = np.array(mean_data[:,0])

But, assuming mean_data has a shape nx3, instead of

R = np.array(mean_data)[:,0]
P = np.array(mean_data)[:,1]
Z = np.array(mean_data)[:,2]

You can simply do

A = np.array(mean_data).mean(axis=0)

which averages over the 0th axis and returns a length-n array

But to my original point, I will make up some data to try to illustrate how you can do this without building any lists one item at a time:


np.append needs the array as the first argument and the list you want to append as the second:

mean_data = np.append(mean_data, [ur, ua, np.mean(data[samepoints,-1])])