interating over single element array

[Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch]

In <4Beai.13210$5j1.6184 at newssvr21.news.prodigy.net>, T. Crane wrote:

> Can someone please explain to me why I can't do something like this:
> 
> a = 1
> 
> for value in a:
>     print str(value)
> 
> If I run this I get the error:
> 
> 'int' object is not iterable

Well the message explains why you can't do this.  `a` is bound to an
integer and integers are not iterable.

> Obivously this is an absurd example that I would never do, but in my 
> application the length of 'a' can be anything greater than 0, and I want to 
> be able to handle cases when 'a' has only one element without coding a 
> special case just in the event that len(a) = 1.

``len(a)`` wouldn't work either because integers have no "length":

In [16]: a = 1

In [17]: len(a)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
exceptions.TypeError             Traceback (most recent call last)

/home/new/<ipython console>

TypeError: len() of unsized object

> any suggestions are appreciated,

Yes, don't try iterating over objects that are not iterable.  ;-)

What you *can* do is iterating over lists, tuples or other iterables with
just one element in them.  Try ``a = [1]``.

Ciao,
	Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch