‘float’ object cannot be interpreted as an integer – Python Error

Python throws the error, ‘float’ object cannot be interpreted as an integer, when you provide float value where int is expected. This happens in case of many built-in functions which needs int as argument.

Consider this code example –

a = 5.0
b = range(a)

# Error: 'float' object cannot be interpreted as an integer

This code will throw the error because range() expects int as argument and we are providing float.

A common mistake happens with division. Single slash ( / ) division returns float value. So,

5 / 2 = 2.5

When you use this in function like range(5 / 2), it will throw error.

To solve this problem, either you can use double slash (//) division which returns int value or convert the float result to int using int() function. Check out this code –

print(5 / 2)
print(5 // 2)
a = range(5 // 2)
b = range(int(5 / 2))

# Output: 2.5
# Output: 2

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Other built-in functions which also expects int as argument are –

• bin()
• chr()
• hex()
• range()
• slice()