How to Solve Python ValueError: dictionary update sequence element #0 has length N; 2 is required

This error occurs when you try to update a dictionary with incorrect syntax. You can solve this error by updating the dictionary with another dictionary or an iterable object containing key-value pairs. For example,

my_dict = {'name':'Tia', 'subject':'mathematics'}

my_dict.update({'name':'Sil', 'subject':'chemistry'}

The error can also occur when trying to convert a list to a dictionary using the built-in dict() function, you can solve this error by ensuring the list contains tuples with two elements (key-value pairs). For example,

my_lst = [('name','pepperoni'), ('price',9.99)]
my_dict = dict(my_lst)

This tutorial will go through how to solve the error with code examples.

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ValueError: dictionary update sequence element #0 has length N; 2 is required

In Python, a value is the information stored within a particular object. We will encounter a ValueError in Python when we use an operation or function that receives an argument with the right type but an inappropriate value.

The update() method inserts specified items from a dictionary or an iterable object with key-value pairs. Passing an iterable to the update() method is an appropriate type but if the iterable does not contain key-value pairs, then it has an inappropriate value, raising the ValueError.

Example #1: Updating a dictionary using update()

Let’s look at an example of incorrectly using the update() method.

my_dict = {'name':'margherita', 'price':7.99}

my_str = 'pepperoni'

my_dict.update(my_str)

In the above code, we defined a dictionary and a string and then called the update() method to update the dictionary with the string.

Let’s run the code to see what happens:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
Input In [6], in <cell line: 3>()
      1 my_dict = {'name':'margherita', 'price':7.99}
      2 my_str = 'pepperoni'
----> 3 my_dict.update(my_str)

ValueError: dictionary update sequence element #0 has length 1; 2 is required

The error occurs because we passed a string instead of an iterable of key-value pairs to the update() method.

Solution #1

We can solve this error by using passing a dictionary to the update() method. We define a dictionary with curly brackets {}. Each key-value pair has a colon between them and pairs are separated by commas. Let’s look at the updated code:

my_dict = {'name':'margherita', 'price':7.99}

my_str = {'name':'pepperoni', 'price':9.99}

my_dict.update(my_str)

print(my_dict)

Let’s run the code to get the updated dictionary.

{'name': 'pepperoni', 'price': 9.99}

Solution #2

We can also solve this error by passing a list of tuples, where each tuple contains two elements (key and value). Let’s look at the revised code:

my_dict = {'name':'margherita', 'price':7.99}

my_lst = [('name','pepperoni'), ('price',9.99)]

my_dict.update(my_lst)

print(my_dict)

Let’s run the code to get the updated dictionary.

{'name': 'pepperoni', 'price': 9.99}

Example #2: Converting a list to a dictionary using dict()

Let’s look at an example of converting a list to a dictionary:

my_lst = ['name']

my_dict = dict(my_lst)

print(my_dict)

In the above code we defined a list and then called the built-in dict() method to convert the list to a dictionary. Let’s run the code to see what happens:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
Input In [10], in <cell line: 2>()
      1 my_lst = ['name']
----> 2 my_dict = dict(my_lst)
      3 print(my_dict)

ValueError: dictionary update sequence element #0 has length 4; 2 is required

The error occurs because the dict() function requires keyword arguments (key=value) separated by commas.

Solution #1

We can solve this error by using the zip() function to return an iterator of tuples, which we can convert into a dictionary. We will need to have one list of keys and another list of values to pass to the zip() function. Let’s look at the revised code.

keys = ['name', 'price']

vals = ['pepperoni', 9.99]

my_dict = dict(zip(keys, vals))

print(my_dict)

Let’s run the code to get the dictionary:

{'name': 'pepperoni', 'price': 9.99}

Solution #2

We can also solve the error by passing a list of tuples with two elements to the dict() function. Let’s look at the revised code:

my_lst = [('name','pepperoni'), ('price',9.99)]
my_dict = dict(my_lst)

Let’s run the code to see the dictionary:

{'name': 'pepperoni', 'price': 9.99}

Summary

Congratulations on reading to the end of this tutorial!

For further reading on Python ValueErrors, go to the articles:

• How to Solve Python ValueError: year is out of range
• How to Solve Python ValueError: empty separator
• How to Solve Python ValueError: binary mode doesn’t take an encoding argument

To learn more about Python for data science and machine learning, go to the online courses page on Python for the most comprehensive courses available.

Have fun and happy researching!