Typeerror can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float’ Python [Solved]

Published August 9, 2022 · · Updated May 23, 2024 · 4 minutes · by Kamerpower ·

Typeerror can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float’ Python [Solved] | Python float multiplication precision. When coding a project, you’re likely to encounter errors. Error messages, in most cases, help you understand what the error is about. Before solving an error you will need to understand the error message displayed. Kamerpower.com

In this article, we will be talking about the “typeerror: can t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float’” error, why it is raised, what type of error this is, why it happens, and how to fix it with different solutions and code examples.

Python float multiplication precision

You can multiply an integer value and a float value by converting the integer into a float. But if you are trying to multiply a float and a value that is not an integer or string, you will encounter an error. An error called “TypeError can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float'” will be raised. By default, Python interprets any number that includes a decimal point as a double precision floating point number.

Why Does the Error “TypeError: can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float’” Occur?

A TypeError in Python occurs when the data types involved in an operation are incompatible for said operation. So it happens when an unexpected value is seen in an operation. This error occurs when we perform an operation with a data type that should not be multiplied with a floating point number.

The error is telling us that we’re multiplying a sequence, also known as a string, by a floating-point number. This is not supported in Python. There are two types of numbers in Python: integers and floating-point numbers. Integers are whole numbers whereas floating-point numbers are decimals.

The easiest way to resolve this is by converting the string into a float or integer and then multiplying it.

How to Solve the TypeError: can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float’ Error

Solution 1

Let’s take a look at a program that calculates a 5% discount on a purchase made at a store.

value = input("How much has the customer spent? ")
discount = 0.05

final_cost = value - (value * discount)
print(round(final_cost, 2))

An error is returned when using the code example above.

The error “typeerror: can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float’” is caused by multiplying a string and a floating-point number together. This error occurred in our earlier program because input() returns a string. This means that even if we insert a number into our program it will be stored as a string.

To solve this problem, we can convert the value the user inserts into the program to a floating-point number. We can do this using the float() method:

value = float(input("How much has the customer spent? "))
discount = 0.05

final_cost = value - (value * discount)
print(round(final_cost, 2))

The float() method is surrounded by the input() method. The float() method converts the string value returned by input() into a floating-point number. This allows us to multiply “value” and “discount” because they are both numbers.

Solution 2: Convert User Input to Integer or Float

This solution applies to situations where we perform an operation after getting an input from a user. Have a look at the example code below:

userId = input("Enter user ID: ")
print(userId * 2.0)
# TypeError: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type 'float'

The code above throws an error after entering a number as the user ID. To fix this, we’ll convert the result of the user’s input before performing the operation.

The program should run perfectly when a user types in a number because it will be converted to an integer: int(input(“Enter user ID: “)).

Here’s how we can do that:

userId = float(input("Enter user ID: "))
print(userId * 2.0)

Solution 3: Convert Float to Integer

To solve the “TypeError: can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float'” error, we can convert the float to an integer.

Here’s an example:

names = ("John ", "Jane ")

print(names * int(2.0))
# ('John ', 'Jane ', 'John ', 'Jane ')

Now we’re getting the expected result – the tuple has been duplicated. We passed in the floating point number into an int() function in order to convert it from a float to an integer. This gets rid of the error.

Conclusion

Above, we have talked about the “TypeError: error in Python. Strings cannot be multiplied by floating-point numbers. This is because multiplying strings by integer numbers creates a repetitive sequence of the string. To fix the “typeerror: can’t multiply sequence by non-int of type ‘float’” error, make sure that all string values are converted to a floating-point number if they are being used as part of a calculation.

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