Python: list index out of range halfway through list iteration

Question

First off, list index being out of range does sound simple and self-explanatory... but looking around I can find no explanation for my situation; I am iterating through a list 19 items long and at the 9th item my console throws the "list index out of range" error". I am at a loss for explanations quite frankly...

*I am using phantomjs and selenium to scrape a webpage... THANKS IN ADVANCE!

# data list
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   
        xpath = [
        businessName,firstName,lastName,ubi,info,
        licenseType,licenseNumber,licenseEffectiveDate,licenseExpirationDate,status,
        bondProvider,bondNumber,bondAmount,bondEffectiveDate,bondEffectiveDate,insuranceProvider,
        insuranceNumber,insuranceAmount,insuranceEffectiveDate,insuranceExpirationDate
        ] 

        data = [
        "businessName","firstName","lastName","ubi","info",
        "licenseType","licenseNumber","licenseEffectiveDate","licenseExpirationDate","status",
        "bondProvider","bondNumber","bondAmount","bondEffectiveDate","bondEffectiveDate","insuranceProvider",
        "insuranceNumber","insuranceAmount","insuranceEffectiveDate","insuranceExpirationDate"
        ] 
#
#
# xpath check and grab function
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        i = 0
        while i <= len(data):
           result = browser.find_element_by_xpath(xpath[i]).text    #checks is xpath exists
           print i
           print data[i] + " = " + str(result) 
           i += 1

Your while loop will definitely go out of bounds, are you sure the error occurs on the 9th iteration? Try changing while (i <= data[i]) to while i <= len(data): — Jacob H
– Jacob H, Commented Feb 22, 2016 at 4:37
you're much better to use for i in range(len(xpath)-1 rather than a while loop. — Jezzamon
– Jezzamon, Commented Feb 22, 2016 at 4:38
I'm also mystified by i <= data[i]. Guess it's a good thing that this becomes a TypeError in python 3. — gil
– gil, Commented Feb 22, 2016 at 4:52
@JacobH I have update to what you suggested about and am still getting an erron on the 9th iteration — user2822565
– user2822565, Commented Feb 22, 2016 at 5:09

Jason S · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-22 04:43:46Z

3

If, as it appears from your example, the items in xpath and data will always correspond directly to each other, you could do this more easily and cleanly by using the loop expression:

for elem_xpath, name in zip(xpath, data):

If you need the index i as well, use enumerate:

for i, (elem_xpath, name) in enumerate(zip(xpath, data)):

answered Feb 22, 2016 at 4:43

Jason S

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user2822565 Over a year ago

This is very helpful and I will use it... but I have just discovered that commenting out the following line gets me past the 9th iteration: "result = browser.find_element_by_xpath(xpath[i]).text"

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