On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Evan Kroske <e.kro...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm working on a simple file processing utility, and I encountered a weird > error. If I try to get the first element of a list I'm splitting from a > string, I get an error: > > key = string.split()[0] > Error! > > However, I can slice the list like normal, but that gives me a > one-element-long list: > > key = string.split()[:1] > Success! > > Finally, the operation works perfectly if I initialize the list beforehand: > > list = string.split() > key = list[0] > Success! > > Why does this happen?
Please include the actual error messages and Tracebacks in the future. "Error!" and "Success!" aren't much to go on; and answering your question without further information is just a guessing game at best. Cheers, Chris -- http://blog.rebertia.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list